On Monday 17th May, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Christiana Figueres as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

Christiana Figueres is the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Christiana Figueres is the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Figueres will take over from outgoing UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, and will now lead the UNFCCC in the build up to the next Conference of Parties in Mexico later this year. It will be a challenging role if negotiations are to overcome the setbacks of the last conference in Copenhagen.

The new Executive Secretary is a welcomed appointment as a leading figure from a developing country, which many hope will restore the balance between developed and developing countries in negotiations.

With her experience of climate change negotiations, as a former member of the Costa Rican negotiating team since 1995 and a representative for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism in 2007 and Vice President of the Conference of the Parties 2008-2009, it is hoped that Figueres will be more than capable of navigating her way over the diplomatic mountains that lie ahead.

EJF congratulates the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat on her appointment, and urges that this year be used to push for progressive action on climate change.

Read about EJF’s work on climate change

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