Christiana Figueres confirmed as UN climate chief

Cost Rica's chief climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres was yesterday confirmed as the new executive secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat and will take over the role from Yvo de Boer from 1 July.

Figueres was formally appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after his decision was endorsed yesterday at a meeting of the Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Figueres, 53, has been a member of the Costa Rican climate change negotiating team since 1995 and has been an influential presence at the UN's long-running climate change negotiations ever since.

She represented Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism in 2007, and was elected vice president of the Conference of the Parties 2008-2009.

She is the daughter of Jose Figueres Ferrer, who was a three-time president of Costa Rica during the 20th Century and her older brother, Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, was also president of Costa Rica between 1994 and 1998.

Figueres herself has also held a number of government posts and is one of the region's foremost environmental experts, having served as the Director of Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA) and founded the Center for Sustainable Development of the Americas (CSDA).

Announcing Figueres' appointment, Ban praised her as "an international leader on strategies to address global climate change" who has "passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders and valuable hands-on experience with the public sector, non-profit sector and private sector".

Figueres said she was "honoured" by the appointment and "humbled by the opportunity of the challenging task at hand".

"As I take on my new responsibilities at the helm of the secretariat, I will have two immediate priorities: to work with the Secretary General to strengthen trust in the process, and to support the Danish and Mexican COP presidencies as well as all other Parties in the preparation of a successful COP16 in Cancun," she added.

The appointment will be seen as something of a coup for those smaller countries who had complained that they were sidelined at last year's Copenhagen Summit.

South Africa's nomination for the role, tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, had been hotly tipped to take over from de Boer. But according to reports, concerted lobbying from island states and poorer countries persuaded the UN to appoint someone from a smaller nation.

Figueres' appointment is likely to broadly welcomed, however, with observers noting that she is a well-respected player among other diplomats and NGOs.

Lead US negotiator Todd Stern issued a statement yesterday welcoming her appointment and adding that the US "looks forward to working with Ms Figueres and partners around the world to build on the progress made in Copenhagen to meet the climate change challenge".

Upon taking up the role, Figueres will have just five months to lay the groundwork for this year's UN climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico in November. While most participants in the talks have accepted that a binding treaty is highly unlikely to be agreed this year, the Mexico summit will have to deliver substantial progress on a number of key issues if a deal is to be finalised at next year's summit in South Africa.

Crucially, Figueres will have to try to find a way to break the deadlocks between the industrialised nations, emerging economies and developing countries that have stalled progress on issues such as emissions targets, climate funding, deforestation and carbon trading.