United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa Cantellano as new UN climate chief on May 18.
Ban specifically gave the position of Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to Cantellano after consulting the members of the Conference of Parties to the Convention.
Getting To Know The New U.N. Climate Chief
Before her new appointment, Cantellano was the Mexican Ambassador to Germany, for the second time since 2013, while her first stint for the position was from 2001 to 2002.
From 2006 to 2012, Cantellano also served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. She has had more than three decades of solid and top-notch experience in the fields of international relations, specifically in climate change dealings, global control, sustainable development, gender equity and human rights protection.
One of her most notable positions is being the head of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, which resulted in the Cancun Agreements — sets of decisions made by the international community about climate change.
Cantellano has also been tasked to represent Mexico in different international organizations and multilateral groups in New York, Geneva and Vienna. Such positions have given her the opportunity to lead global efforts that aim to address climate change and its impacts.
Continuing Plans
The 57-year-old will succeed Costa Rica's Christiana Figueres, who stepped down after six years of service.
Cantellano plans to continue what Figueres has started, linking actions to halt climate change in all facets of development in the upcoming years.
Like her predecessor, Cantellano believes that governments need to solidify current pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions to slow down the increase in temperatures connected with rising sea levels, floods and droughts.
Moreover, she thinks that the Paris agreement's goal of maintaining temperature up to 1.5 degrees Celsius still has no certainty.
"I think it's possible but very difficult, not reachable with the commitments we have on the table," she says.
