Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican diplomat, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and an internationally recognised leader on global climate change. Best known for helping secure the historical Paris Agreement, she inspires audiences with lessons in collaborative diplomacy, climate leadership and stubborn optimism.
Christiana Figueres is one of the world’s most respected voices on climate change, diplomacy and global leadership. A Costa Rican citizen with a long career in public service, she is best known for her work as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Appointed in 2010 by Ban Ki-moon, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Christiana Figueres assumed responsibility for international climate change negotiations at a difficult moment. The 2009 Copenhagen climate conference had ended in disappointment, and trust between countries needed to be rebuilt.
Through her calm, determined and highly collaborative approach, Figueres helped bring national governments, sub-national governments, corporations and activists together around a shared climate goal.
During her time at the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres helped guide the process that led to the Paris climate agreement in 2015. The agreement was adopted by 195 Parties and created a collaborative path to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the rise to 1.5°C.
Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, private companies, faith groups, NGOs, financial institutions, technology providers and civil society to jointly deliver an unprecedented climate change agreement.
This achievement has made her closely associated with a new brand of collaborative diplomacy. Her work shows event audiences how complex global problems can move forward when people choose shared responsibility over blame.
Before formally joining the UNFCCC secretariat, Christiana Figueres had already spent many years working in global climate change policy. She had been involved in climate negotiations since 1995 and was originally a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team.
She began her life in public service at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Germany in 1982. She later worked in Costa Rica’s Ministry of Planning, served as…
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