Hammer, meet Tong. UN Secretary General Ban has chosen Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica will be the new U.N. climate chief. A Costa Rican, eh? Curious.
Ms. Figueres hails from a country that's expected to take it in the neck from global warming on everything from sea level rise to increasingly violent storms. From Reuters AlterNet:
Ms. Figueres is an international leader on strategies to address global climate change and brings to this position a passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders and valuable hands-on experience with the public sector, non-profit sector and private sector," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
This year, negotiators have agreed little except to hold two extra sessions in the run-up to a meeting in Mexico that begins in late November.
Many policymakers expect the Mexico meeting also to fall short of a binding deal, looking to 2011 for agreement on a successor to Kyoto. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Some analysts are doubtful of any new formal, binding pact beyond Kyoto, expecting instead a patchwork of national targets and schemes.
Figueres' challenge will truly be to herd cats, an awful lot of cats including some very big cats that are decidedly opposed to being herded by anyone. Good luck, Christiana!
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