Figueres steps down as executive secretary after reaching historic agreement
hace 9 year
Yesterday Christiana Figueres completed her term as Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a position she held for six years. Christiana has been a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team since 1995, participating in the negotiations of both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC on May 17, 2010, replacing Yvo de Boer, who left the post on July 1 of that year.
Figueres' time at the United Nations marked a historic milestone: after six years of negotiations, the goal of curbing climate change was achieved by keeping the global average temperature below 2ºC and committing the 195 signatory countries to strive to generate more ambitious commitments to reduce the global average temperature compared to the pre-industrial era.
That great achievement was embodied in the Paris Agreement, an international treaty that nations approved at COP21 in Paris last year and rectified on April 22 this year, on Earth Day.
Last year, Christiana was recognized by Time magazine, which included her in its list of 100 most influential people. Time distinguished her in the category of “pioneer” for her career and her great contributions to the fight against climate change.
Christiana will be replaced by Patricia Espinosa, a Mexican diplomat, who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the administration of President Felipe Calderón from 2006 to 2012 and held the post of head of the Mexican Embassy in Germany from September 2013 until this year.
Today, Thursday, July 7, she will be proposed as a candidate for the United Nations (UN) General Secretariat by the government of her country, Costa Rica. This proposal would be added to the eleven candidacies already presented for this process, among which Helen Clark, Chief of Development of the UN and Irina Bokova, Director General of Unesco, stand out.
← Previous
Next →
