A citizen of the island state of Grenada, Simon Stiell is the new executive secretary of the Unfccc, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Simon Stiell, a politician from the island state of Grenada, has been appointed to lead the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Unfccc), the body that, among other things, is responsible for organising the World Climate Conferences (Cop). The choice was announced by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres: Stiell will succeed Mexico's Patricia Espinosa, who has held the post since 2016.
The handover is expected to take place "soon", although no precise date has been given. It will certainly be Stiell who leads the Unfccc at Cop 27, scheduled in Egypt this coming November. A crucial appointment for the fate of the planet, following the decidedly disappointing results of the two previous conferences: Cop 25 in Madrid and Cop 26 in Glasgow.
Stiell served as a minister in his country from March 2013 to June of this year. He focused in particular on adaptation and resilience in the face of climate change, in a nation that represents one of the world's "frontlines" in this regard, given that rising sea levels, driven by the melting of polar ice, risk submerging significant portions of its territory.
It is no coincidence that the first to welcome Stiell's appointment was the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), of which Grenada itself is a member, which extended its congratulations "to one of the most fervent climate champions". The Caribbean politician also served as Minister of Education and of Agriculture, and was a member of the upper chamber of parliament.
An engineer, Stiell studied at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom and held senior roles in private companies in California's Silicon Valley, as well as in major corporations such as Nokia. His task will be to persuade governments — above all the most reluctant ones — of the need to accelerate the process of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, in order to meet the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement: keeping the rise in average global temperature to within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
