SPRING 2010 Climate Alert
Moving Beyond the Status Quo [ PDF ]
In this Newsletter:
Christiana Figueres Named to Lead Climate Secretariat
On May 17, 2010, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon named widely respected Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention Secretariat based in Bonn, Germany. Figueres, who serves on the Climate Institute Board of Advisors, has long been a leader in the climate NGO community, and has links to numerous public and private groups in the climate protection field. In 1995 she founded the Center for Sustainable Development for the Americas (CSDA); as Executive Director of CSDA, she transformed the Clean Development Mechanism into an effective tool for combining climate mitigation and development, moving well past a focus on a single large project to encompass efforts that are highly dispersed and directly benefit individual users, such as distributed generation renewable energy and end use energy efficiency. Fluent in Spanish, English and German, and educated at Swarthmore College, London School of Economics and Georgetown University, Figueres comes from a distinguished family that were pioneers in sustainable development long before the term came into general use. She is recognized as having a deep understanding of the negotiation process and the importance of engaging all countries in dialogue on climate protection, in order to foster trust and achieve an international climate agreement. Christiana Figueres now has lead responsibility for ensuring the success of COP 16 that opens November 29, 2010 in Cancun, Mexico.
Other Articles in this Newsletter:
Healthy People, Healthy Planet
Twenty Years After Valdez: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Star Homes: Retrofitting American Housing
Mitigating Industrial Black Carbon Through Energy Recycling
Algaeoleum: Fueling the Future
Shore-Based Power: Reducing Idle Ships' Emissions
United States Regulatory Solutions for Reduction of Black Carbon Emissions
Grasslands, Ranchers and Pastoralists Provide Significant Win-Win to Address Global Climate Change