Barbara Finamore
Senior Attorney and Director of the China Clean Energy Program, National Resources Defense Council
Barbara Finamore is a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She is the founder and director of NRDC’s China Program, which promotes innovative policy development, capacity building and technology demonstration in the areas of energy efficiency, green buildings, clean energy and environmental health. Over the last decade, NRDC’s China Program has inspired China to launch a national energy efficiency demand-side management campaign; develop efficiency incentive programs and standards that could avoid the need for 300 large coal plants over the next decade; invest US$100 million in advanced vehicle R&D; develop a national roadmap for carbon-capture ready coal gasification plants; and prepare a national inventory of mercury use in industrial production.
Ms. Finamore has had over twenty-five years of experience in environmental law and policy in the United States, China, Russia and Taiwan. From 1990-1993 Ms. Finamore lived in Beijing, where she worked as an environmental consultant to the United Nations Development Programme, helping to develop and launch China’s Agenda 21 program for sustainable development. She has also worked as a Staff Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and an Attorney-Advisor for the U.S. Department of Interior. Ms. Finamore served as Chairman and President of the Professional Association for China’s Environment (PACE) and as Vice-Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy and Resources.
Ms. Finamore is co-founder and President of the China-U.S. Energy Efficiency Alliance (www.chinauseealliance.org). The China-US Energy Efficiency Alliance is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote global sustainability by working with China to harness efficiency as a viable energy resource. Through its Board of Directors, Leadership Council, and Technical Advisory Group (TAG), the Alliance receives guidance and support from a variety of leaders in energy efficiency technology, economics, policy and activism and transfers that expertise into practical solutions to energy and environmental needs in China and the US.
Ms. Finamore received her J.D.degree cum laude from Harvard Law School. She is married to Ambassador Stephen M. Young and they have three children.