Christiana Figueres
Costa Rica
Speaker | Outrage and Optimism
As the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) from 2010-2016, Christiana Figueres oversaw the delivery of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Today she is founding partner of Global Optimism and Convenor of Mission 2020, a global effort to peak greenhouse emissions by 2020.
During her tenure at the UNFCCC, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and strive for 1.5°C in order to protect the most vulnerable. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy, for which she has received multiple awards.