UN picks new climate change chief

[Judi Lynn]

UN picks new climate change chief

Costa Rica's Christiana Figueres is to be the new head of the UN climate convention, BBC News understands.

The UN is expected to confirm her appointment to take over from outgoing chief Yvo de Boer later in the week.

Sources close to the UN said she emerged as front-runner after an intervention from small island states.

The US-based diplomat, daughter of former Costa Rican president Jose Figueres Ferrer, has taken part in UN climate negotiations since 1995.

She emerged as the undisputed front runner only in the last few days, after a number of small island developing nations told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that they preferred someone from a smaller developing country to the other leading candidate, South African tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10119753.stm