About the
Conference

Christiana Figueres
Founding Partner, Global Optimism; Former Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Presentation
NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award Remarks
Biography
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010 to 2016. During her tenure at the UNFCCC, Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations, activists, financial institutions, and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and strive for 1.5°C, in order to protect the most vulnerable. For this achievement, Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy and received multiple awards. Since then, Figueres has continued to accelerate the global response to climate change. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast “Outrage & Optimism,” and is the co-author of the recently published book, “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis.”