U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica as the world body's new climate chief. She replaces Yvo de Boer as executive director of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). "Ms. Figueres is an international leader on strategies to address global climate change and brings to this position a passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders and valuable hands-on experience with the public sector, non-profit sector and private sector," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a regular briefing. Figueres has previously served as a vice-president of the UNFCC and is also the daughter of the late Costa Rican president Jose Figueres. "I am honored by the designation of the Secretary General and I am thankful to the members of the UNFCCC Bureau for their vote of confidence. Most of all, I am humbled by the opportunity of the challenging task at hand," she said in a statement.
