Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016, leading negotiations that culminated in the Paris Agreement. After the Paris Agreement, she became a prominent voice in the investment community on climate-aligned strategies, co-founding Global Optimism and Mission 2020. She is on the board of several sustainable energy funds and speaks at major investment conferences connecting climate targets to capital allocation. Her influence on both policy and finance circles is unusual for a diplomat. Her family background in Costa Rican politics — her father José Figueres was a three-time president of Costa Rica — gave her an early understanding of governance and public policy. She came to the UNFCCC role following the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit of 2009, which many considered a failure of international climate diplomacy. Her achievement in securing a universal agreement in Paris in 2015 is widely credited to her approach of building consensus through optimism and pragmatic deal-making rather than confrontation. She co-hosts the "Outrage + Optimism" podcast and has co-authored books on climate action. Her engagement with institutional investors through GFANZ and related initiatives has brought climate considerations into mainstream asset allocation and risk management frameworks.