The world is coming together again to discuss climate solutions at the UN climate conference Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Egypt. Below are brief profiles of the Sierra Club’s delegation.
Leslie Fields, she/her/hers -- National Director of Policy, Advocacy, and Legal
Leslie Fields brings 30 years of federal, state, local, and international environmental justice and environmental law and policy experience to the Sierra Club. She oversees the federal policy, legal, state, labor, and democracy programs within the program department of the Sierra Club. She serves on the boards of the Children’s Environmental Health Network and Empower DC. She also serves on the board of Adeso African Solutions (an East African natural resources and development organization based in Nairobi, Kenya). Fields has supported entities such as the Building Equity and Alignment Initiative, Green 2.0, and the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum. and has been an adjunct law professor at Howard University School of Law. She enjoys mentoring and supporting young professionals in this field and has been an in-demand thought leader at numerous forums and conferences. For over 20 years, Fields has engaged in voter protection activities during election cycles, supporting intersectional solutions for human rights and sustainable development. In 2018, she received the American Bar Association SEER Dedication to Diversity and Justice Award and the Sierra Club Mike McCloskey Award. In 2021, Fields received the Gertrude R. Rush Award from the National Bar Association. Leslie Fields is a graduate of Cornell University, the Georgetown University Law Center, and is licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the US Supreme Court.
Question: What are you most excited about for COP 27 this year? I am excited to be part of the delegation led by Cherelle Blazer and Ramón Cruz to this historic COP27, on the African continent. I am proud that the Sierra Club is helping sponsor, with other groups, the first Climate Justice Pavilion created by the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University. The pavilion will bring together representatives from the Global South, the U.S. Environmental Justice Movement, and Indigenous peoples to spotlight the voices of communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. The Sierra Club has longstanding ties to organizations on the African continent and we look forward to collaborating with those organizations and all the others, in person!
Steve Herz, he/him/his -- Senior Climate Policy Advisor
Steve Herz is a Senior Attorney/Senior International Climate Policy Advisor with the Sierra Club’s International Climate and Policy Campaign. He has over 20 years of experience as an international lawyer, advocate, and policy analyst, with an extensive background in national and international climate policy, environmental and human rights law, climate finance, and energy policy. Steve is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, reports, and submissions on these issues. He holds degrees in government (B.A.), law (J.D.), and history (M.A.) from the University of Virginia.
Question: What is special about this COP being in Africa compared to previous locations? Since the last four COPs have all been in Europe, it's really important to have a COP under the leadership of a vulnerable country on the front lines of climate change.
Cherelle Blazer, she/her/hers -- Sierra Club’s Senior Director of International Climate and Policy Campaign
Cherelle’s 20-year career began in the Gulf South working on air quality and public health. Having seen the climate crisis and cancer epidemic unfold in her community, she attended Southern A&M University and the Yale School of the Environment before beginning a career in atmospheric research with The National Center for Atmospheric Research and the US Department of Energy. Cherelle then joined the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign and moved back to Louisiana, where she is fulfilled by connecting the experiences of Gulf South communities with those fighting the climate crisis across the world. She has been leading the Sierra Club’s International Climate and Policy Campaign for the last three years.
Question: What are you most excited about for COP 27 this year? I am most excited about advancing climate finance at COP27, including a doubling of adaptation funding and addressing Loss and Damage in a meaningful and substantive way. This is what our colleagues in the Global South have been calling for and it is especially important to make progress at an African COP.
Ramón Cruz -- Sierra Club President
Ramón Cruz has over 20 years of experience intersecting the fields of sustainability, environmental policy, urban planning, energy and climate change. He has worked in the public sector in his native Puerto Rico as the Deputy Director of the Environmental Quality Board, the state environmental regulatory agency, and as Commissioner of the Puerto Rico Energy Commission. He has also worked in the non-governmental sector in senior positions at the Environmental Defense Fund, the Partnership for New York City and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. He has been a consultant for the World Bank, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute and the German Agency for International Cooperation. In May 2020, he was elected president of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organization with 3.8 million members and supporters in 64 chapters across the United States. Ramón is a graduate of American University in Washington D.C. and Princeton University in New Jersey
What are you most excited about for COP 27 this year?
It is the first significant international meeting after the passage of the IRA. This is significant because it gives the U.S. the moral authority to negotiate and bring other governments that might not be proactive on the table. At the same time it gives us the opportunity to hold the US government accountable to their promises and push them for more. IRA achieves 40-% reduction, while the US NDC aspires to a 52% emissions reduction, so there is clearly a need for further advocacy.
Cindy Carr, she/her/hers -- Deputy Press Secretary
Cindy is a deputy press secretary at the Sierra Club who leads the communications work and strategy for the International Climate and Energy Campaign, the Clean Water Program, and the Democracy Program. She has nearly a decade of experience in climate advocacy and strategic communications and has been leading the Sierra Club’s communications for COP since 2014. Cindy is a graduate of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio and she currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Question: Why is it important that the Sierra Club is present at COP27? The International Climate and Policy Campaign has spent the past three years building grassroots partnerships and our network of global grassroots climate leaders and at COP, we have an important role to play in amplifying their voices and centering their demands even if they are not able to attend.