Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016.

During her tenure, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations, activists, women’s groups, scientists, spiritual communities, financial institutions, and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Under this Agreement, 195 sovereign governments decided on a collaborative path to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and to strive for 1.5°C in order to protect the most vulnerable in every nation. For this achievement, Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy and received multiple awards.

Since then, Ms. Figueres has continued to foster rapid action on climate change. She is the co-author of The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis (Penguin Random House 2019) and co-host of the popular podcast Outrage and Optimism.

She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics and has been awarded multiple honorary doctorate degrees from academic institutions such as Yale, University of Massachusetts, Georgetown, and University of Edinburgh. After decades of living and working abroad, she has moved back to her beloved Costa Rica. She has two fantastic daughters, Naima and Yihana, fountains of much joy.