Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen is an economist, diplomat and analyst from Costa Rica with several studies in various fields and more than 35 years of experience in national and international policy and multilateral negotiations. Daughter of the former President of Costa Rica, José Figueres Ferrer, and sister of José María Figueres Olsen, who was also took charge of the Presidency of the country in the past years, this woman is positioned in the Ranking of Most Powerful Women in Central America, according to Forbes, as the number one.
She was named Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in May of 2010, and since 1995, she has been part of the Costa Rican negotiation team, what has given her the opportunity of participating both in the negotiations of the UNFCCC, as in the ones of the Kyoto Protocol.
Figueres directs a discussion in charge of vital decisions for the future of humanity and the climate for the years to come, and she has stoked the debate and trust in their chances after the failure at the Summit in Copenhagen, in 2009. That Summit in the Danish capital had as objective to get a new universal agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol as an instrument to fight against the climate change.
She was elected Vice President of the Bureau of Climate Convention 2008-2009 in representation of Latin America and the Caribbean, given her prior experience representing the region in the directive joint of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in 2007. She plays an important role in other organizations since she is the Vice Chair of the Rating Committee top of the Carbon Rating Agency in some projects and Principal Climate Change Advisor to ENDESA Latinoamérica.
Then, there is her importance in the politics of her country of origin, between 1982 and 1985she was Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Germany. She was also Director of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Planning of Costa Rica in the year of 1987, and in 1988 she was appointed as the Chief of Staff to Minister of Agriculture of Costa Rica.
Over the years, she has earned the recognition she enjoys today, and throughout her career, she has received several honors and awards, including from which may be appointed, the National Geographic Hero of the Planet of, which she received in the year 2001, a prize awarded by MINAE in April 2016 and the Princess of Asturias Award for international cooperation for all the UNFCCC ; all these awards have facilitated Figueres the credentials and arguments enough to be one of the eleven candidates to replace the Korean Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General of the United Nations.
Her nomination campaign is entitled ‘Restoring Hope’ and her promise, according to its manifesto, is to “achieve a peaceful resolution of disputes and a strengthening of our ability to respond the crises”; This will be partially funded by the Government of Costa Rica, and by the crowdfunding method.