Press Release

First Visit of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to Bhutan

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Ms. Christiana Figueres, will visit Bhutan from 1 – 3 May 2014. Her Excellency will pay a courtesy call on the Hon’ble Prime Minster and Hon’ble Foreign Minister and will meet with senior officials of the Royal Government. Discussions will be held on the ways to build upon the fruitful partnership in the context of climate change and to further strengthen the progress in responding to the challenges confronting our contemporary climate.

This will be the first visit by the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC to Bhutan. The visit takes place in the context of the on-going intergovernmental discussions on Climate Change to arrive at a legally binding mechanism to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Toward that end the upcoming UNFCCC Conference of Parties, Peru 2014 (COP19) and Paris 2015 (COP20) will be important milestones.

The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty that sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. Bhutan has been a Party to the UNFCCC since 1995. As a State Party, Bhutan is able to draw attention to and raise awareness of Bhutan’s vulnerabilities and challenges from climate change and benefit from funds available to least developed and vulnerable states for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.

Ms. Christiana Figueres was appointed Executive Secretary of UNFCCC in May 2010. She has been involved in climate change negotiations since 1995. In the same year, she founded the Center for Sustainable Development of the Americas (CSDA), a non-profit think tank for climate change policy and capacity-building, and directed until 2003. From 1994– 1996, she served as Director of the Technical Secretariat, Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA). She has served as Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Bonn, Germany (1982).