Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has said a successor to Yvo de Boer, the top UN climate change official who has just announced he is stepping down, must be found urgently to keep negotiations on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions on track.
Yvo de Boer resigned his position as executive secretary of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) yesterday (February 18). He is to leave on July 1 2010, taking up a position at KPMG as a global adviser on Climate and Sustainability and working with several universities.
The announcement comes just two months after the UN Climate Change Conference took place in Copenhagen, where the Dutch official helped produce the
Copenhagen Accord.
While acknowledging his achievements in helping to secure the accord, Miliband said the UNFCCC needed reforming and a replacement to de Boer needed to be found soon.
“We must quickly find a suitable successor, who can oversee the negotiations and reform the UNFCCC to ensure it is up to the massive task of dealing with what are some of the most complex negotiations ever,” he said in a statement.
Copenhagen Accord criticisedThe accord, which is not a legally binding agreement on
greenhouse gas emissions, has been widely criticised. Miliband was among those who stated his disappointment about the scope of the accord and was also among those critical of the UN conference in Copenhagen for getting bogged down by issues around the process of the negotiations.
Meanwhile, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has weakened the role of the UN in negotiating a global deal on climate change because of an inaccurate claim in a report it published that said there was a "very high" chance of glaciers disappearing from the Himalayas by 2035. The case has been dubbed ‘glaciergate’ and together with ‘climategate’ – in which scientist from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were accused of manipulating climate change data after hundreds of their emails were ‘stolen’ by hackers and published online – has undermined the case that climate change is man-made.
"Real solutions" to climate change must come from businessCommenting on his departure, yesterday, de Boer said working at the
UNFCCC had been a “tremendous experience” but that he’d “always maintained that while governments provide the necessary policy framework, the real solutions must come from
business.”
De Boer acknowledged Copenhagen had fallen short of expectations, but it did get political commitment from the countries responsible for 80 per cent of the world’s emissions, and a pledge to raise $100 billion (£64 billion) annually by 2020. It also includes an agreement to work towards curbing global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius and efforts to reduce or limit emissions.
“The political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen,” he said.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he regretted de Boer’s decision but thanked him for his “strong commitment and professional support.
“Mr. de Boer’s contribution during this crucial period encompassing the negotiations in Nairobi, Bali, Poznan and in Copenhagen will be remembered, and difficult to replace,” he said.
Looking towards global agreement on climate change in MexicoDe Boer, who took up his post at the UNFCCC in September 2006, said he would use his remaining time at the body to move negotiations ahead before the next global conference on climate change to be held in Mexico later this year.
“Countries responsible for 80 per cent of energy related carbon dioxide emissions have submitted national plans and targets to address climate change,” he said. “This underlines their commitment to meet the challenge of climate change and work towards an agreed outcome in Cancun.”
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Green policy newsGreenhouse gas emissionsRelated links:www.unfccc.int