UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief

UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief. The United Nations has appointed a Mexican diplomat as the top U.N. official leading the fight against global warming.

Patricia Espinosa said in a statement Thursday that she is “grateful and honored” to be named executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The appointment was announced by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The 57-year-old Espinosa is Mexico’s ambassador to Germany so she won’t have to move far – the U.N.’s climate secretariat is in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.

She will succeed Costa Rican Christiana Figueres who is stepping down in July after six years as the U.N.’s climate boss.UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief

Espinosa’s main task will be to ensure that countries implement a landmark agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, reached in Paris in December.

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Patricia Espinosa Cantellano (born October 21, 1958) is a Mexican politician and diplomat who is currently serving as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was Mexican Ambassador to Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia and served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México and earned a diploma in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland. She is married and has two children