Former UN climate chief retires from leadership after poor performance in initial straw polls
Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who led the global effort to secure the Paris Agreement in December, has withdrawn her candidacy for the position of UN Secretary-General.
Figueres announced her withdrawal from the race to find Ban-Ki Moon's replacement yesterday after she finished near the bottom of a straw poll of candidates conducted by the UN on September 9.
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In a letter Figueres said she was pulling out "out of loyalty to the United Nations and in order to facilitate the advance of the selection process".
The diplomat left her position as executive secretary of the UNFCCC climate change secretariat in July in order to run for the position of UN Secretary General.
But hopes that her performance at the climate change secretariat - where she led the office from the bitter disappointment of the 2009 Copenhagen summit to the success of the Paris Agreement last year - would spur her to the UN top spot were dashed after disappointing polling results.
In the latest poll, which was topped by Portugal's former Prime Minister, António Guterres, she received support from just five countries. Nine candidates are still in the running for the position as UN chief, with the successful applicant expected to be confirmed in their new role in December.
In the withdrawal letter Figueres said she has "deep gratitude" to her country and UN member states, but warned that a "new era of strengthened multiculturalism" is needed to safeguard peace in the world.
"We have entered an age of increasing interdependence, in which the purposeful interweaving of our efforts will be critical as we address challenges ranging from peace, conflict prevention, human rights, migration, disease, depletion of natural resources and climate change," she wrote.
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