Christiana Figueres DBE

Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognised leader on climate action. Six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen, Christiana Figueres was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She steered the global diplomatic effort as chief negotiator, which culminated in the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 parties with the goal to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. The Paris Agreement provides a framework for financial, technical and capacity building support to those countries who need it.

Prior to the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres founded the Centre for Sustainable Development in the Americas in 1994 which promotes sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. More recently Figueres reunited with her former strategy advisor, the environmental economist Tom Rivett-Carnac, to examine what the next 30 years will bring in their book: The Future we Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis. She is also a member of The B Team and Chair of the Earthshot Prize Foundation.