Foreign Minister Steinmeier on Jochen Flasbarth’s candidacy for Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Speaking on the fringes of the UN Security Council meeting in New York today (28 February), Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued the following statement on Jochen Flasbarth’s candidacy for Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

Zusatzinformationen

Jochen Flasbarth is an outstanding candidate for the post of UNEP Executive Director. He has decades of expertise and management experience in the field of climate policy, environmental protection and nature conservation. Most recently he showed at the Paris Climate Conference that he can be counted on when it comes to tackling the challenges posed by climate change and Agenda 2030 implementation resolutely and without hesitation.

Jochen Flasbarth’s candidacy has the full support of the German Government. In my talks, including here in New York, I can only urge everyone to recognise Jochen Flasbarth’s outstanding qualities and to support his candidacy.

Background:

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which was established in 1972 and is headquartered in Nairobi, is the United Nations’ “environmental conscience”. As a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, UNEP’s task is to identify and analyse environmental problems, elaborate principles for environmental protection, develop regional environmental protection programmes and help developing countries build up national environmental protection programmes. Since 2006 UNEP has been headed by German-Brazilian Achim Steiner. His term as Executive Director ends in 2016.

Jochen Flasbarth is the German Government’s official candidate to succeed Achim Steiner. For almost 20 years, as President of NABU - Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union and of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), he has been instrumental in shaping German environment policy. Since 2013 he has devoted himself with the same passion and commitment to his work as State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

from
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2016/160229_Flasbarth.html?nn=479796