UN Global Climate Change Chief Quits

The United Nations' climate change chief Yvo de Boer has made it public that he's quitting later this year. But he wants the world to know his decision isn't because December's Copenhagen climate talks bombed, failing to get binding limits on global greenhouse gases.

Still, it seems worth noting that his departure will be effective July 1, which will be five months before the next scheduled global climate meeting of world leaders in Mexico.

He had some advice for the Mexican host of the next meeting: get smaller groups of nations together first to try and reach key understandings first since it's so much harder to get nearly 200 nations to agree on most anything.

A snippet from the Associated Press:

De Boer is known to be deeply disappointed with the outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, which drew 120 world leaders but failed to reach more than a vague promise by several countries to limit carbon emissions - and even that deal fell short of consensus.

But he denied to the AP that his decision to quit was a result of frustration with Copenhagen.

 

"Copenhagen wasn't what I had hoped it would be," he acknowledged, but the summit nonetheless prompted governments to submit plans and targets for reigning in the emissions primarily blamed for global warming. "I think that's a pretty solid foundation for the global response that many are looking for," he said.

De Boer told the AP he believes talks "are on track."

He recommended the next talks take a different tack. Rather than convene several negotiating sessions involving nearly 200 countries, Mexico, which is chairing the negotiations throughout this year, should prepare the November conference to work in smaller groups to lay the groundwork of a deal.

De Boer is certainly striking an optimistic tone, but to many observers his departure is likely to speak more loudly about where global talks stand than his words.