Press

Speculation rife on new UN climate chief as de Boer stands down

Carbon Finance

A list of possible successors to Yvo de Boer as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is starting to emerge, with one climate policy veteran emerging as the carbon market’s favourite.

De Boer announced in mid-February that he is to leave his post in July, two months ahead of his contract expiring, to join KPMG as an adviser on climate and sustainability. He has been executive secretary of the UNFCCC – the body overseeing international negotiations on climate change – since September 2006, having previously been deputy director general of the Dutch environment ministry.

Since the 18 February announcement, speculation on who UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon would choose as de Boer’s successor has been rife, with the Indian government moving quickly to put forward Vijai Sharma from the country’s environment and forests ministry – and reports suggest that China has agreed to back this effort.

Other names mentioned include South Africa’s tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Agus Purnomo, an adviser on climate change to Indonesia’s president, and fellow Indonesian Liana Bratasida, an international environmental affairs expert at the country’s environment ministry.

But leading the pack among market participants is Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres, who has been a climate change negotiator since 1995 and advises a swathe of governments on climate change issues as well as private entities, including investment manager C-Quest Capital and utility Endesa Latinoamerica. She was praised for her efforts in co-chairing the negotiating group tasked with Clean Development Mechanism reform at December’s climate talks in Copenhagen.

“If we want this to work, we need someone who can reinvigorate the process and re-engage the private sector credibly,” said one US-based carbon market veteran. “A lot of the names being bandied about don’t fit ... The system is in bad shape – she’s the one person who could really bring it back.”

De Boer’s departure follows a disappointing conclusion to Copenhagen. Two years previously, countries had set a goal of establishing a binding post-2012 treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of last year – an objective they failed to achieve. However, some have argued that the talks signalled a new era of cooperation between major emitters.

“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen,” de Boer said.

“Yvo’s done a great job steering the talks, but if he’s decided he doesn’t want to do that in 2010, then it would be an almost impossible task for him,” said EcoSecurities’ general counsel Alex Sarac.

“It’s hard to see how anyone could have done more with the hand he was dealt,” said Henry Derwent, president of the International Emissions Trading Association. “Should the [carbon] market be worried about his departure? I think it depends on who succeeds him.”