UN Secretary-General Appoints Climate Change Envoys

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonhas  appointed two Special Envoys on Climate Change. John Kufuor, former President of Ghana, and Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Minister of Norway, will assist him in mobilizing political will and action, and raising ambition in advance of the 2014 Climate Summit.

The Summit is scheduled to take place in New York, US, on 23 September 2014, and will provide an opportunity to mobilize political commitment for reaching a global climate agreement by 2015, as well as to spur enhanced action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and build climate resilient communities. The Special Envoys will: assist the Secretary-General in his consultations with leaders to raise the level of ambition to address climate change and to accelerate action; and provide strategic advice to him based on their consultations.

President Kufuor was President of Ghana from 2001-2009, served as Chairperson of the African Union (AU) from 2007-2008, and received the World Food Prize in 2011 for creating and implementing government policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in his country.

Jens Stoltenberg was Prime Minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2013, and has led the Norwegian Labor Party since 2002. He previously worked with the Secretary-General on climate change, leading the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF) along with the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. In 2010, Stoltenberg convened a group of forest countries to coordinate and contribute to measures against deforestation and to promote a central role for forests in a new climate agreement.

• [UN Press Release]
• [UN System Work on Climate Change Press Release]