Costa Rican elbows out South African as UN climate boss

SA not small and powerless enough, insist delegates

By John Oates, 17th May 2010

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

A Costa Rican bureaucrat is set to take the top job at the United Nations climate convention after a mini-revolt from small island states.

South African Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk was in line for the post until the intervention from several smaller countries asking for a representative from a smaller developing nation, the Beeb reports.

Christina Figueres has been negotiating for Costa Rica at the UN since the mid-90s. Before that she was in the Costa Rican diplomatic service and prior to that she was chief of staff for the minister of agriculture.

Figueres has published several books and articles on climate change. Her appointment is expected to be officially announced later this week.

Her full CV is available from here. ®

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Highly Rated

Posted Monday 17th May 2010 15:05 GMT

Anonymous Coward

Yes, I know

Assuming this is sarcasm, might I venture a seriously question about who *wouldn't* have a bias when it comes to global warming/deforestation/reducing water table/species loss/overfishing/human overpopulation/habitat loss etc etc?

Until such time as something like Iain Bank's "Culture Minds" take over the running of things, I'll wager we'll continue to make selfish decisions, or be too afraid to make the decisions that actually count, or too paper-work-bound (the EU being the worst) to actually get these decisions enacted.

Until then, 'Gaia' is royally boned.

Aliens, 'cos they're up there pointing and laughing.

Posted Wednesday 19th May 2010 00:19 GMT

Raving