Figueres named as new UN climate chief

Christiana Figueres has been appointed as the new UN climate chief. Ban Ki-moon yesterday named Figueres, from Costa Rica, as the successor to Yvo de Boer.

Climate groups such as the WWF Global Climate Initiative welcome the appointment. Kim Carstensen said:

Figueres will bring forward her experience with government, business, and civil society and at the same time the perspective of a developing country government. Her background should allow her to foster trust between countries and to push for an ambitious climate deal.”

Greenpeace International climate policy coordinator, Wendel Trio said:

Christiana Figueres has been lead negotiator for a country that aims to become carbon-neutral by 2021, the type of attitude we need on the global stage. We hope she can really engage all countries in a fast-moving dialogue to get agreement on a global deal that will save the world from dangerous climate change.

Source: UN.org.

A Colourful Coalition

George Monbiot – on the blue/yellow-orange coalition:

[B]etter than I had expected. The agreement’s environmental policies are more Lib Dem than Conservative, and more progressive…Let’s see how it works in practice.

Daily Maybe – on the Green Party offering a “comprehensive offer” to disillusioned LibDem members.

Rupert Read – welcomes the Con-Lib plan to scrap building a third runway at Heathrow airport. He also outlines his main reasons for leaving the LibDems for the Greens. For Cllr Read:

We can have prosperity without growth; but we cannot have environmental sanity with growth.

Total Politics – interviews the Green Party election campaign director, Paul Steedman.

Chris Huhne – is to take the Energy & Climate Change post in the new coalition government.

The Twitterverse top 50

Click here for the key organisations and individuals to follow on Twitter re climate change and the environment. Some suprising omissions but good to see relatively new groups such as 10:10 included.

The Leaders’ debate and climate change

The main UK political parties have all made manifesto pledges in relation to cutting emissions. However, the leaders’ debate last night added a new dimension to British politics. The televised debate is likely to become a mainstay for years to come and may diminish the importance of the traditional manifesto pamphlet and pledge card.

Even before the debate last night that focused on issues such as immigration, crime and the armed forces  George Monbiot reckoned that the environment had been sidelined as a policy issue in the election campaign.

There are two more televised leaders’ debate before polling day. It remains to be seen if there will be a real debate over future environmental policies. Grassroots campaign websites such as 38 Degrees may yet play a part in raising the “climate profile” over the coming weeks.