Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has announced he is to step down from his position later this year, as hopes of an international climate change deal fade.
De Boer, who will resign his position at the UNFCCC as of 1st July this year, has worked extremely hard in international negotiations and to seek a global agreement to avoid dangerous climate change.
The UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, has commented on de Boer’s resignation, saying his “patient work helped produce the Copenhagen Accord which contains commitments covering 80 percent of global emissions, something never previously achieved.”
Mr Miliband then turned his attention to the future, grasping the importance of maintaining momentum in the fight against emissions and climate change. “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."