Pak eyes UN climate chief's post

Pakistan has nominated its candidate Tariq Banuri for the position of the head of United Nations Framework on Climate Change that will be filled by July when the current UN Climate chief Yvo de Boer steps down.

The final list of candidates include Christiana Figueres from Costa Rica, Maria Fernanda Espinoza from Ecuador, Vijai Sharma from India, Marthinus van Schalkwyk from South Africa and Janoz Pasztor from Hungary who is also presently heading the Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team.

A former government official in Pakistan, Banuri is the director of the Asian Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute and has previously worked with the UN.

The deadline for submission of nominations ended on Tuesday.

The new UN climate chief will have to dive into preparations for the next big climate talks scheduled for Cancun in 2009.

"The UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun must do what Copenhagen did not achieve," de Boer, said recently in Bonn.

The top UN official played a critical role in organizing the climate talks at Copenhagen in December, which failed to produce a legally binding treaty.

Instead the participants took note of the Copenhagen Accord.

In February, the climate chief told the Associated Press that he was not resigning due to frustration over the conference in the Danish capital.

"Copenhagen wasn't what I had hoped it would be," de Boer said, noting that summit propelled governments to submit targets for reducing emissions.

"I think that's a pretty solid foundation for the global response that many are looking for.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will find his replacement after consulting with the 11 members of the UNFCCC bureau, and the candidates will also face an interview.