Jerome Foster II: A Climate President in the Making

At just 23 years old, Jerome Foster II has already advised the White House, co-founded a national youth voting initiative, and shaped conversations around environmental justice at the federal level. He is not running for public office. But his trajectory — steeped in policy, protest, and civic engagement — raises a timely question: What would it look like for the United States to finally elect a president who puts climate at the center of national governance?

Historically, the climate crisis has not been treated as a unifying national priority in American politics. Presidential action has been intermittent and often constrained by partisanship, economic interest, or legal barriers. The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan was never fully implemented. The Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement. And while President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act represents the most significant climate legislation to date, its scope is still largely framed around investment incentives rather than system-wide structural transformation.(Clean Power Plan - EPA, Paris Agreement Withdrawal - BBC, Inflation Reduction Act Summary - White House)

At the same time, the climate emergency is no longer hypothetical. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global average temperatures are likely to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2035. (IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report)

Exceeding that threshold risks triggering irreversible climate feedback loops — melting ice sheets, sea-level rise, agricultural collapse, and mass migration. The U.S. is already experiencing record-breaking disasters: in 2023 alone, the country suffered 28 climate and weather events that each caused more than $1 billion in damage. The cost of inaction is rising (NOAA 2023 Billion-Dollar Disasters)

By the year 2036, when Foster turns 35 and becomes eligible to run for president, the stakes will be even higher. Under current trajectories, global warming could exceed 2 degrees Celsius. The United States would need to cut emissions by at least 70 percent from 2005 levels to remain within the Paris Agreement’s targets. (Climate Action Tracker: USA)

According to the World Bank, more than 200 million people worldwide may be displaced due to climate-related disruption by 2050. (World Bank Groundswell II Report)

Foster is not new to this conversation. He began climate striking outside the White House as a teenager and, by 18, became the youngest-ever appointee to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (White House EJAC Announcement)

There, he helped draft recommendations for federal agencies to embed environmental justice into national disaster preparedness, infrastructure funding, and climate resilience programs. His proposals have included integrating environmental equity into FEMA's disaster definition, prioritizing formerly redlined neighborhoods for urban forestry investment, and recognizing extreme heat as a public health emergency (EJAC Recommendations Report)

Unlike many in Washington, Foster does not treat climate change as a siloed issue. Instead, he frames it as the operating context for everything else — jobs, health, migration, housing, education. He often speaks about climate not as a crisis of emissions, but as a crisis of systems: energy systems, legal systems, economic systems that were not designed with long-term planetary health in mind.

His framing draws from a growing body of scholarship calling for climate-centered leadership. Think tanks like the Roosevelt Institute and Data for Progress have outlined what a “climate president” might look like: a leader who mobilizes federal agencies toward decarbonization, treats climate change as a national emergency, and reorients governance around ecological stability. (Roosevelt Institute: The Climate Mandate)

While no U.S. president has operated this way, the framework is increasingly seen as necessary, particularly as traditional regulatory approaches fail to produce timely emissions reductions.

Foster’s early policy engagement mirrors many of these principles, even without holding elected office. He has also helped build civic infrastructure outside of government. As a co-founder of OneMillionOfUs, he led a national youth turnout campaign ahead of the 2020 U.S. election, focused on climate, gun violence, and racial equity. He also launched The Climate Reporter, a youth-led media platform amplifying climate stories from underrepresented communities. These projects illustrate a different style of leadership — decentralized, collaborative, and designed for long-term cultural shift.

Foster's work is not without precedent. In some ways, it mirrors the civic arc of Congressman John Lewis, who championed civil rights not only through legislation but through moral clarity and public pressure. Foster interned for Lewis at 16, and has often cited him as an influence.

Where Lewis saw voting as foundational to democracy, Foster sees the climate crisis as foundational to public survival. Both have treated injustice not as a passing political problem, but as a structural condition requiring deep, sustained transformation.

That model of leadership is already visible in his work at American Forests, the oldest national environmental organization in the U.S. As an Ambassador, Foster is helping the institution align its century-old conservation mission with the demands of 21st-century climate equity. His presence has sharpened the organization’s public messaging, connected it to younger audiences — rightfully so — and elevated urban forestry and heat resilience as core justice issues on the national stage, something not meaningfully done in quite some time.

In a sector often shaped by tradition, funding inertia, and public relations cycles, Foster’s approach marks a critical intervention. Corporate funders are increasingly drawn to youth-led initiatives — not just for optics, but because they reflect the urgency, clarity, and systems thinking that many legacy institutions struggle to embody. In this context, American Forests deserves praise for not only creating space for Foster’s leadership but for evolving alongside him, signaling a willingness to be a leader of today's climate and conservation efforts, not simply a steward of yesterday.

That dual fluency, between institutional access and movement urgency underscores why, during Harvard’s 2024 Radcliffe Day, where Foster shared the stage with a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, one of Harvard’s own deans was heard saying: “Jerome for president — he has my vote.” For some, it’s a sentiment rooted not in hope, but in observation. Foster is already seen by many not only as a generational voice, but as a climate president in the making.

Whether Jerome Foster II ever campaigns for public office remains to be seen. But what’s increasingly evident is that the kind of leadership he embodies — informed by science, accountable to communities, and oriented toward long-term planetary well-being — is not just desirable, but increasingly essential.

As temperatures rise, disasters intensify, and adaptation becomes a central challenge of public governance, the demand for new models of leadership will grow. Foster’s career so far suggests one such model. And if the United States is to meet the climate moment, it may not be enough to have a president who addresses climate. It may require one who centers it — fully, structurally, and without delay.