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U.N. climate change expert to speak at NCC on Global Warming
By Press Release
Apr 14, 2008 - 6:48:33 AM

Christiana Figueres, an internationally renowned climate change specialist, will give a slide and lecture presentation on “GWhat? Global Warming: What is it? What is being done? What can I do?” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22 in the GenRe Forum at Norwalk Community College.

The public is welcome to attend this event, which is being held in celebration of national Earth Day.

Figueres, a native of Costa Rica, was named the 2001 Hero for the Planet by National Geographic magazine and Ford Motor Co. She is a senior level policy advisor to government officials and world leaders on clean energy strategies.

Figueres is vice president of the Bureau of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2007, she was named the UNFCC’s Representative for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a treaty which sets a framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. It recognizes that the Earth’s climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Convention has been ratified by 192 countries. Under its agreements, governments gather and share information on greenhouse gas emissions, national policies and best practices; and launch strategies for addressing greenhouse gas emissions.

Since 1995, Figueres has been a senior negotiator for the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that was linked to the UNFCC, but made a second and greater step toward addressing global warming. While the Convention encouraged developing countries to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the Protocol committed them to do so. Considered to be the most far-reaching agreement on environment and sustainable development ever adopted, the Kyoto Protocol requires countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions below levels specified for each of them in the treaty. These targets must be met within a five-year timeframe between 2008 and 2012, and add up to a total cut in emissions of at least 5 percent.

Recently, Figueres gave testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, on the results of the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

From 1995 to 2003, Figueres was the founder and executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Prior to that, she served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Agriculture in Costa Rica and as Minister to the Embassy of Costa Rica in Bonn, Germany.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology at Swarthmore College and a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. She also holds certificates in organizational development from Georgetown University and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

Figueres is a widely published author on policies and financial instruments for sustainable energy use and conservation. Her many publications include “The Bali Batik,” an analysis of the various elements to be included in a post 2012 climate change regime.

She has worked with former Vice President Al Gore on raising awareness of the climate crisis. In 1995, Figueres negotiated and achieved a U.S-Costa Rica Bilateral Agreement on Emission Reductions, which was signed by Vice President Gore and former Costa Rican President Jose Figueres.

For more information, call the NCC Public Relations office at (203)857-7039.

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