Costa Rican environmentalist to head UN climate panel
May 18th, 2010 - 12:56 am ICT by IANSNew York, May 17 (DPA) Costa Rica’s top environmentalist Christiana Figueres was appointed Monday to head the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Figueres will replace Yvo de Boer July 1, taking over a body troubled by its failure to win an international agreement in Copenhagen last December. The agreement is still needed as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol before its expiration in 2012.
Figueres was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. She was a runner-up for the post along with South Africa’s minister of tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
“Miss 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 for the public and private sector,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Figueres led her country’s efforts in combatting climate change since since 1995. Her father, Jose Figueres Ferrer, was president of Costa Rica three times.
The Bonn-based UNFCCC is responsible for the debate and action on global fight against global warming. One of its major goals is obtain a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
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