BL: Yvo De Boer Resigns as Top United Nations Diplomat Leading Climate Talks
By Alex Morales
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Yvo de Boer, the United Nations diplomat who led talks aimed at curbing global warming, is quitting his post after failing to achieve a binding agreement at Copenhagen’s climate summit in December.
De Boer, 55, is resigning as executive secretary effective July 1 to join KPMG International, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said today in an e-mailed statement. Some 190 nations aim to craft a pact to fight warming temperatures at a two-week meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in November after gaps among negotiators in Denmark resulted in no legal treaty.
“The important thing is his successor is bedded in quickly and can reinvigorate the UN process,” Ben Caldecott, head of European Union policy at London-based carbon fund manager Climate Change Capital, said today in a telephone interview. No successor was named in today’s UNFCCC statement.
Leaders in Copenhagen reached a non-binding political accord supported by the world’s biggest emitters while failing to gain the acceptance of all nations. That leaves the $127 billion carbon market awaiting mandatory international targets that could boost prices and provide companies with greater incentives to cut greenhouse gases.
“The market would be better with a more robust international agreement,” Trevor Sikorski, an emissions analyst for Barclays Capital, said today in an interview. He said while de Boer’s resignation is a “sad day” for carbon markets, the impetus of climate negotiations had waned since Copenhagen and participants in the talks were “exhausted.”
“In some ways there’s a silver lining to the cloud of de Boer’s resignation for the markets,” Sikorski said. “This provides an opportunity to regain that momentum.”
Role of Business
De Boer’s successor will be chosen by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in consultation with the UNFCCC, spokesman Eric Hall said today in a phone interview from Bonn. A timeline for the appointment hasn’t been set, he said.
De Boer said in the statement that the decision to resign was difficult and that the commitment of nations to fight climate change is underlined by pledges to act by nations responsible for four-fifths of the greenhouse gases mostly blamed for global warming.
“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming,” de Boer said. “This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen.”
-- Editors: Randall Hackley, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 18, 2010 08:06 EST
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