Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS YVO DE BOER OF NETHERLANDS AS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

OF UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

 

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to succeed the late Joke Waller-Hunter.  The appointment has been made after consultations with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau.

Mr. de Boer is currently Director for International Affairs of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment of the Netherlands, where he is responsible for international policy, both in the context of the European Union, as well as broader international cooperation.

He has also served as Deputy Director-General for Environmental Protection in the same Ministry, as Head of the Climate Change Department and has worked in the fields of housing and public information.  Early in his career, Mr. de Boer worked for the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT

Mr. de Boer has been involved in climate change policies since 1994.  He has helped to prepare the position of the European Union in the lead-up to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, assisted in the design of the internal burden sharing of the European Union and has since led delegations to the UNFCCC negotiations.

He has actively sought broad stakeholder involvement on the issue of climate change.  To that end, he launched an international dialogue on the clean development mechanism and has partnered international discussions with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, aimed at increasing private sector involvement. 

Mr. de Boer has served as Vice-President of the Conference of Parties to UNFCCC and as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development.  He is currently a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, the Bureau of the Environment Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Advisory Group of the Community Development Carbon Fund of the World Bank and the Board of Directors of the Centre for Clean Air Policy.

Mr. de Boer was born in Vienna, is married and has 3 children.  As the son of a Dutch diplomat, he has travelled the world extensively before entering boarding school in the United Kingdom and obtaining a technical degree in social work in the Netherlands.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record