Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, told the Associated Press today he will resign on July 1, after four years of leading international negotiations.
De Boer openly expressed disappointment about the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit in December, which failed to reach a binding successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.
"We were about an inch away from a formal agreement. It was basically in our grasp, but it didn’t happen," he said. "So that was a pity."
De Boer said the high point of his tenure was the 2007 UN conference in Bali, at which developing and developed nations agreed to a roadmap for creating a successor treaty.
The Dutch civil servant publicly has been relentlessly optimistic about the chances of an international agreement–even when privately discouraged at the slow pace of negotiations, AP reported.
The report does not give a specific reason for De Boer’s resignation, though it mentions exhaustion after years of continual work behind the scenes. It also suggests that a reorganization of the Climate Secretariat office may be due in light of what could be viewed as failed negotiations in Copenhagen.
De Boer said he will be a consultant on climate and sustainability issues for the global accounting firm KPMG and will be associated with several universities.
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