Complex diplomatic job
Christiana Figueres from Costa Rica is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn. Her job requires perseverance and negotiating skills.
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat
The Costa Rican Christiana Figueres has a reputation for being persevering and energetic. Those are two qualities that put her in good stead to head the Bonn-based Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The negotiations on climate protection are probably among the most complicated processes ever to be conducted within the international community. Only a few months after the talks were once again at a low ebb following the failed Copenhagen climate summit, the now 59-year-old took over the top job of Executive Secretary in Bonn. That was in 2010. Since then, the marathon runner has also demonstrated her political staying power, campaigning untiringly for the world‘s “decarbonisation”.
“We don’t really have any choice,” she says on such occasions, in a tone that is something between an appeal and an admonition. Whether she can permanently loosen up the ponderous administrative apparatus and instigate new agreements remains to be seen. But fellow activists already attest to her having done “a terrific job under excruciatingly difficult circumstances” (Al Gore) over the past five years. Her family tradition has probably been of some help to her in this respect: Christiana Figueres comes from a prominent political dynasty that has produced a number of presidents in Costa Rica. The diplomat, who speaks excellent German, knows Bonn well: she worked there from 1982 to 1985 at her country’s embassy when Bonn was still the German capital. ▪
