Yvo de Boer reveals KPMG job was lined up before Copenhagen summit

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/25/yvo-de-boer-kpmg
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Yvo de Boer reveals KPMG job was lined up before Copenhagen summit

Outgoing UN climate chief says he met with accountancy firm in November,
believing he did not have the 'stamina' to continue overseeing efforts to
reach a new global climate deal

David Adam, environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 February
2010 16.00 GMT[image: U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer, Nusa Dua, Bali,
Indonesia]Outgoing UN climate chief Yvo de Boer at a meeting of world
environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia, this week. He said today that he
did not have the 'stamina' to continue overseeing efforts to reach a new
global climate deal. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/AP

The UN's top climate
change<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change> official
had already lined up a new job before the ill-fated Copenhagen summit that
left international talks on global warming in limbo, he said today.

Yvo de Boer <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/yvo-de-boer> said he met
with KPMG in November to discuss a new role with the accountancy firm, and
that he did not have the "stamina" to continue overseeing efforts to reach a
new global climate deal.

De Boer announced his
resignation<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/18/yvo-de-boer-climate-change>
as
executive secretary of the UN climate convention last week, prompting
speculation
he was forced out by
politicians<http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/02/unknowns_behind_climate_chiefs.html>
unhappy
with the Copenhagen outcome.

"This isn't the sort of job you get in six weeks after Copenhagen," said de
Boer of his new position. "When Copenhagen failed to deliver what I had
hoped, I thought maybe I should put it on ice and stick around for a while
to see it through. But it could take another two years ... and I don't think
I've got the stamina."

He said the job had put his personal life under strain. "This is the best
job in the world but you shouldn't try to do it for too long, especially if
you are married and you want your wife and children to recognise you."

His replacement should perhaps be drawn from a developing nation, he said.

De Boer insisted that the Copenhagen meeting marked "very significant"
political progress, but conceded that there was "absolutely miles to go"
before a new deal could be finalised. "I don't think we will get a legally
binding treaty in 2010," he said.

The best that can be achieved is an "operational architecture" that could be
turned into a deal, though he raised questions about its eventual legal
status. "Legally binding is a term that means many things to many people.
I've never heard of a prime minister being arrested for not meeting a
target."

He said a major stumbling block to an agreement remained the mistrust
between the developing and developed countries over climate finance. Rich
countries had offered "recycled contributions from the past" he said, while
the build-up to the Copenhagen meeting had focused too much on the issue of
binding emission reduction targets.

"

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