Off the wire
• Kenya hastens education sector reforms: official  • Pakistani army chief confirms death sentence to 11 "hardcore terrorists"  • Zidane: it would be a failure to not make Champions League final  • China is leading importer of Senegal's groundnut oil: official data  • Kenya's economy grows 5.6 pct in 2015: official  • Bangladeshi court to deliver verdict on Islamist party chief  • 1st LD Writethru: Eurozone growth forecast revised down to 1.6 pct for 2016  • China vows crackdown on illegal trade among drug wholesalers  • Bangladeshi court sentences 4 to death over crimes in independence war  • France says no to TTIP "at this stage": President Hollande  
You are here: 　 Home

Former Mexican Foreign Minister nominated as new UN climate chief

Xinhua, May 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Former Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa has been nominated by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as the new UN climate chief, announced the UN climate change body in Bonn, Germany on Tuesday.

"The UN Secretary General has concluded the selection process for the next Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC with the selection of HE Patricia Espinosa," said the Secretariat of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a statement.

A consultation with an 11-member bureau has started in order to approve the final appointment, according to the Bonn-based Secretariat.

Earlier on Tuesday, outgoing UN climate chief Christiana Figueres made the same announcement on twitter. Laurence Tubiana, French ambassador for climate negotiations who was speculated to replace Figueres after she steps down in July, also wrote a Tweet to congratulate Espinosa.

Espinosa was born in 1958 and currently works as the Mexican Ambassador to Germany. She presided an annual UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico as the Mexican Foreign Minister in 2010.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Figueres said the main challenge for addressing climate change in coming months and years is to implement the Paris Agreement, a global climate pact reached by over 190 nations in Paris last year.

Details of the implementation will be a focus of negotiations in Bonn this month and an annual climate summit in Morocco at the year end, she said. Endit