[4] Stern served as the United States Special Envoy for Climate Change, leading talks at the United Nations climate change conferences and smaller sessions, appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on January 26, 2009.

[5] He was the United States' chief negotiator at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

[6] Stern previously served under the Bill Clinton administration as Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary in the White House from 1993 to 1998, during which time he also acted as the senior White House negotiator at the Kyoto Protocol and Buenos Aires negotiations.

[7][8] At the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-17) in Durban, Stern was interrupted by Abigail Borah, who accused USA of moving to slowly to tackle climate change.

[9] On 10 September 1995, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Stern married Jennifer Klein, a policy analyst working for the Domestic Policy Council and office of the First Lady.