 Christiana Figueres has been appointed new executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), replacing Yvo de Boer, who bade farewell to colleagues at the Bonn climate change talks by warning that they risk a “red card” if they fail to reach an agreement.
Ms Figueres was elected vice president of the Conference of the Parties 2008-2009 and has been a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team since 1995. She also represented Latin America and the Caribbean on the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board in 2007.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said: “Ms Figueres is an international leader on strategies to address global climate change and brings to this position a passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders and valuable hands-on experience with the public sector, non-profit sector and private sector.”
Ms Figueres, who also formerly worked as the director of Renewable Energy in the Americas and founded the Center for Sustainable Development of the Americas, said her priorities included helping the Danish and Mexican COP presidencies and other parties to prepare for a successful COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, in November-December.
Just days after her appointment, Mr de Boer gave a farewell speech where he thanked his international peers and colleagues of 14 years and issued a warning. He said: “To use World Cup imagery: we got a yellow card in Copenhagen and the referee’s hand will edge towards the red one if we fail to deliver [a legally binging agreement on climate change] in Cancun and beyond.”
Dutch Mr de Boer said his hopes for the Secretariat now include better communication, a balance between political and technical needs and greater involvement of observer organisations and international agencies. He also said he believes that there are “huge opportunities” in consulting the private sector on green tax policies.
Mr de Boer admitted that the Copenhagen climate change talks in December 2009 “did not entirely deliver what anyone had expected or hoped for,” but was optimistic for the future when he told his audience: “You did it in Rio. You did it in Kyoto. You did it Bali. You will do it again in Cancun.”
http://unfccc.int/2860.php |