UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Janos Pasztor, former Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change, as Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Change.
In addition, Laurent Fabius, President of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC, appointed Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for Climate Change, to fill one of the two co-champion positions established by the COP decision accompanying the Paris Agreement (FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1).
29 January 2016: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Janos Pasztor, former Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change, as Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Change. In addition, Laurent Fabius, President of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC, appointed Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for Climate Change, to fill one of the two co-champion positions established by the COP decision accompanying the Paris Agreement (FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1).
In his new role, Pasztor will mobilize world leaders and all sectors of society to implement the Paris Agreement, according to the UN. Upon his appointment, Pasztor reminded leaders of the Paris Agreement signing ceremony scheduled for 22 April 2016, and recalled the importance of swift ratification of the Agreement to maintain momentum. Highlighting the Secretary-General’s call for doubling clean energy investments by 2020, he added that the Agreement has “sent a clear message to markets and investors.”
Pasztor has previously served as Executive Secretary of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability, Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, Director of the UN Environment Management Group and in senior positions at the UNFCCC Secretariat.
Tubiana, serving in the co-champion role through the end of COP 22 in November 2016, will seek to scale up pre-2020 climate action, as outlined in the COP decision. To this end, the co-champions will strengthen high-level engagement to enhance existing efforts and spark new voluntary efforts, help coordinate an annual high-level event at the meeting of the COP, work with State and non-state actors on initiatives under the Lima Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) and provide guidance on Technical Expert Meetings (TEMs) organized on mitigation and adaptation under the UNFCCC. Tubiana has identified the adoption of clean technologies and fossil fuel divestment as her priorities.
Among Tubiana’s other previous and current roles are Founder and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), Director of Global Public Goods of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and President of the Board of Governors of the French Development Agency (AFD).
The Paris Agreement was adopted at the conclusion of the Paris Climate Change Conference, which convened from 29 November to 13 December 2015, in Paris, France. [UN Press Release] [UN News Centre Press Release] [COP 21 Presidency Press Release] [LPAA Website] [IISD RS Coverage of the Paris Climate Change Conference]