by Linda Straker
- Formally announced as UNFCCC Executive Secretary on 15 August
- Stiell was senior minister in NNP administration
- Held portfolio of Minister for Climate Resilience and the Environment for 5 years
Simon Stiell the immediate former Environment Minister in Grenada was, on 15 August 2022 formally announced as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations secretariat that focuses on climate change.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Simon Stiell as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat based in Bonn, Germany. The appointment has been endorsed by the Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Stiell has become the first person from the Caricom region to be appointed to this position. The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.
Other holders of that office are: Patricia Espinosa (2016-2022) from Mexico; Christiana Figueres (2010-2016) from Costa Rica; Yvo de Boer (2006-2010) from Vienna, Austria; Joke Waller-Hunter (2002-2005) from the Netherlands and Michael Zammit Cutajar (1991-2002) from Malta.
Stiell who served as Leader of Government Business in the Senate or Upper House of Parliament, from March 2013 to June 2022 was also a senior minister in the New National Party (NNP) administration.
He held the portfolios of Minister for Climate Resilience and the Environment for 5 years and also served as Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Minister of State with responsibility for Human Resource Development and the Environment, and as a junior minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
Before becoming a government minister, Stiell had a career spanning 14 years within the technology sector, holding senior executive positions in a number of industry-leading companies, from Silicon Valley-based technology start-ups, to major corporations including Nokia and GEC. He originally trained as an engineer and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom.
The UNFCCC is an intergovernmental treaty developed to address the problem of climate change. The Convention, which sets out an agreed framework for dealing with the issue, was negotiated from February 1991-May 1992 and opened for signature at the June 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development — also known as the Rio Earth Summit. The UNFCCC entered into force on 21 March 1994.
