As of yesterday, there are only two candidates left in the race to be the next OECD Secretary-General: Mathias Cormann, conservative finance minister from Australia and Cecilia Malmstrom, former EU Trade Commissioner from Sweden.  Cormann's candidacy is raising great concern amongst climate advocates around the world; attached is a short backgrounder on why Cormann's appointment should be opposed by the US and others that care about climate ambition, prepared by a group of Australian colleagues.

In addition to concerns about Cormann from a climate and clean energy perspective, friends at the AFL-CIO tell me that "the entire global labor movement is now supporting Malmstrom as Cormann has a very anti-worker, pro-fossil fuel industry history and we feel that his vision is completely incompatible with that of this Administration. The OECD will play a critical role in shaping the recovery agenda through its economic and social policy recommendations."

The final decision may be made as soon as next Tuesday, March 9th. Letters and messages urging the administration not to support Cormann's candidacy need to go in ASAP to these two people who are in the lead on this issue:

Peter Haas, State Department: haaspd@state.gov<mailto:haaspd@state.gov>

Peter Harrell, National Security Council: Peter.E.Harrell@nsc.eop.gov<mailto:Peter.E.Harrell@nsc.eop.gov>

Best, Alden