President Figueres visited his ‘alma mater’, Harvard University, to participate in two separate activities. One was the meeting of the “Dean’s Advisory Leadership Council (DALC)”, of the Harvard Kennedy School, body on which he serves. The second activity was the celebration of the Mason Program 50th Anniversary.
In President Figueres’ view, after more than two decades in which the role of government has been relegated to the minimum expression, the present crisis in the global financial markets points towards the importance of governments as regulators and promoters of a society of opportunities. The roll of the new American Administration will be fundamental in advancing towards a more multilateral world, that finds solutions and resolves the challenges we face as humanity.
José María Figueres was invited to participate in the Forum of Biarritz, France, where he moderated a session on the effects of the Global Economic Crisis. Discussion leaders in this session were Juan José Ibarretxe, Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Country; Enrique Peña Nieto, Governor of the State of Mexico; Francois Bayrou, ex-Minister of France; and José Antonio Ocampo, ex-Minister of Finance of Colombia.
President Figueres argued for the need to resolve the present economic crisis without sacrificing what must be the fight against Climate Change. He proposed a rapid shift towards a ‘low carbon economy’ (reconversion of economic activity to produce the goods and services required to fulfill global growth aspirations, while emitting much less carbon), to create the jobs and economic activity required to get out of the crisis. On these issues, he furthered, there are good opportunities for cooperation on specific projects between Europe and Latin America.
President Figueres was the keynote speaker at the Chatham House Conference “Technology: A Platform for Development”, organized in London, UK. His presentation highlighted the importance of mainstreaming technology applications, mainly Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s), into development-at-large, rather than considering them an addition to development programs. Having information travel that empowers persons to live better lives and be increasingly successful, instead of having persons travel to find the information they need, also reduces carbon emissions which in turn helps mitigate the effects of Climate Change. José María illustrated his presentation with concrete examples on how this can be achieved in different development conditions around the world. Furthermore, he argued this was best and perhaps only way of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) defined by the United Nations in the Millennium Declaration (2000).
Lord Stern, President Figueres, and Manuel Marin
(Courtesy of the Eduardo Barreiros Foundation)
With the pariticipation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Figueres, and Lord Nicholas (Nick) Stern, author of the renowned “Stern Review” dealing with the economic realities of Climate Change, the Eduardo Barreiros Foundation organized the “Sustainability and the Automobile Forum” in Madrid, Spain.
Lord Stern, Presidente Figueres y Manuel Marin
(Courtesy of the Eduardo Barreiros Foundation)
President Figueres argued the additional challenges that the “3 F’s” will represent for mitigating Climate Change: the Financial crisis of global proportions, the Fuel / energy situation around the world, and the Food crisis brought about by increased prices.
Lord Stern published the “Stern Review” on October 30th 2006. In this report he looks at Climate Change from an economic perspective, and sets forth a series of practical conclusions that could lead to policy formulations in the economic area effectively helping mitigate Climate Change.
Lord Stern and President Figueres have participated as panelists in the same session in different international activities.
José María Figueres participated in the Annual Meeting of the “Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)”, in New York, convened under the leadership of President William Jefferson Clinton. This event brings together one thousand global leaders from the worlds of politics, academics, business, and civil society.
The working program was organized around 4 tracks: Energy and Climate Change, Global Health, Education, and Poverty. In each one of these thematic areas a series of dialogues organized into sessions and plenaries focuses on broadening understanding on the principal challenges faced in the area, with the objective of finding innovative ways to resolve them and advance collective wellbeing. CGI actively promotes partnerships amongst the represented sectors to work on different programs related to the four themes.
Within the Climate Change track, President Figueres moderated the session entitled “Local Leadership”, with the participation of Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of París; Robert Kennedy Jr, Chairman Waterkeeper Alliance; Xiaoyi Liao, President Global Village Beijing, China; and Bill White, Mayor of Houston.
The session was webcast and it is also possible to see the video by following the link below.
Under the theme of “How on Earth can we live Together?”, the Tallberg Foundation of Sweden invited President Figueres to participate in the Tallberg Forum 2008. Over a four day working programme, this event convenes leaders from all sectors of the global society to discuss and broaden understanding on the most pressing global challenges for humanity. The Forum is characterized by its humanistic approach, systems thinking, and principled pragmatism.
José María participated in the Plenary Session entitled “Systems-thinking to Systems-doing”, together with Maud Olofsson, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden; Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General of Civicus, India; Jill Lester, CEO of The Hunger Project, New York; and Sir Michael Marmot, Chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, WHO London.
President Figueres also participated in the hosted conversation “A new Transatlantic Dialog”, together with Jan Eliasson, Sweden’s Foreign Minister and later the UN Special Envoy to Sudan.
President Figueres was among the global leaders invited to attend the first Annual Meeting of the new Global Humanitarian Forum, presided by Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, to address “The Human face of Climate Change”: it is indeed the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations that are being most affected by ever increasingly violent storms, severe drought, and floods. The 2008 Annual Meeting pooled the expertise and experience of an uncommon combination of 300 leading personalities from across sectors to develop creative solutions and boost action to meet the urgent needs of those worst affected by Climate Change. The Forum identified water, transfer of clean technologies and agriculture as the sectors most in need of action. Towards the end of the meeting, Kofi Annan, joined by the participants, agreed to support efforts to establish ‘climate justice’ as the guiding principle for a post-Kyoto global climate agreement.
José María Figueres is a signatory to the message “<350” calling upon all nations in the ongoing climate negotiations to adopt 350 ppm (parts per million) of CO2 as the target to be reached. The current science shows that 350 ppm is the absolute ceiling for CO2 concentration that can be sustained without having serious adverse affects to our climate system. The message was published in today's New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Financial Times.
ALNAP celebrated its Biannual Meeting for the first time in its history in Madrid, Spain. DARA (Development And Research Associates), a Madrid based International Evaluation Agency which publishes the Humanitarian Response Index (HRI), co-organized the event and hosted the gathering.
ALNAP is a network dedicated to improving humanitarian performance through increased learning and accountability. Its members comprise donor nations, UN agencies, NGO's and research institutes.
The event was inaugurated by Her Royal Highness Princess Leticia, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajín, and DARA's Director, Silvia Hidalgo.
President Figueres was invited to be the moderator of the Closing Plenary, focused on the interaction between Humanitarian Organizations and the Media with the objective of improving humanitarian assistance in situations of crises around the world.
President Figueres was invited to participate in the 60th Anniversary of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), in Santiago, Chile. Together with Fernando Henrique Cardosso of Brazil, Ricardo Lagos of Chile, and Julio Maria Sanquinetti of Uruguay, Jose Maria Figueres participated in a round table discussion moderated by Jose Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
President's Figueres participation focused on the challenges and opportunities Latin America faces in the context of Climate Change, and the ways in which ECLAC can contribute to the adoption of effective regional policies in this respect.
President Michelle Bachelet of Chile also participated in the Celebration of this event, as well as distinguished Professor Alain Touraine, of the Haute Etudes en Sciences Sociales of France.
President Figueres launched the first "One Laptop per Child" Project in Europe, which will be implemented by the Maimona Foundation in the community of Los Santos de Maimona, Extremadura, Spain. This project is being launched in close cooperation with the "One Laptop per Child Foundation", established by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Media Lab (MIT). The objective is to provide every child between the ages of 6 and 12 years with an XO Laptop to enrich their educational experience.
This activity took place during the inauguration of the 4th Technology Fair of Extremadura, event at which President Figueres also delivered the keynote address on how the Information Society can deliver tangible benefits to citizens.
Vídeos:
The Community of Los Santos de Maimona:
Speech by Nicholas Negroponte about the XO project:
Speech by Jose Maria Figueres in Extremadura on the Information Society:
Costa Rica Exports 1,000,000 tons of carbon fixed, April 1998
President Figueres travelled to Hong Kong,
Beijing, and Shanghai, for a series of meetings with global
corporations. China’s economic growth is responsible
for 70% of new global oil demand. Because energy is responsible
for about 60% of total global emissions, this year China will
also surpass the United States as the largest carbon emitting
nation. These characteristics also generate a huge potential
for carbon mitigating projects, condition which is already
attracting much attention from relevant players in the global
carbon offset market.
During President Figueres’ administration (1994-1998),
Costa Rica passed a first ever tax on carbon emissions, and
pioneered the carbon trading system by certifying and exporting
a first one million tons of carbon fixed. Jose Maria has always
believed carbon trading mechanisms are a good market solution
which can help lower overall global carbon emissions, and
therefore should be included in a post-Kyoto agreement between
nations to deal with the important challenge of Climate Change.
13 March
At the World Biofuels Markets conference
in Brussels, Jose Maria Figueres participated in the Opening
Keynote Session entitled “Global Markets, Global Industry”.
The other discussion leaders included Commissioner Mariann
Fischer Boel, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural
Development, Lord Oxburgh, former Chairman of Shell and Chairman
of D1 Oils, and Nicolas Denis, Associate Principal, Biofuels
and Industrial Biotech Practice at McKinsey & Company.
The session was moderated by Tim Sebastian, the former presenter
of BBC HardTalk.
During his speech, President Figueres highlighted the global
energy scenario and the importance of moving towards sustainable
energy consumption patterns, in the face of increased consumption
coming both from population increase and development of nations
around the world. Bio-fuels, especially of the second generation,
can become a relevant component of an ‘energy production
mix’ to produce the amount of energy the world needs
while at the same time producing less carbon emissions.
From the 25th of February to the 7th of
March, José María Figueres will lead the inaugural
National Projects Climate Fellowship team on a tour to study
the effects of climate change at the Arctic’s edge in
Northern Canada. Accompanying Mr. Figueres, the fellowship
team consists of prominent members of the Arab Community.
The fellows will join an Earthwatch Institute research team
to study the impact of global climate change. While in the
Arctic, Figueres will give frequent reports in his “blog
from the Arctic”.
The Spanish Council of Ministers has decided
to grant Spanish citizenship to President Jose Maria Figueres,
effective on 22 February. Mr. Figueres wishes to express his
gratitude and feels honoured by this decision. Having Spanish
grandparents, Mr. Figueres celebrates being closer to his
family roots. Thanks to this decision made by the Spanish
government, President Figueres will enjoy the double Spanish-Costa
Rican citizenship, established by the existing bilateral agreement
between both countries.
The third meeting of the Global Leadership
for Climate Action (GLCA) taskforce, of which President Figueres
is a member, was held in the principality of Monaco on 20-21st
of February. The meeting also included a presentation of the
GLCA findings to the UNEP 10th Special Session of the Governing
Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum. At the Special
Session the Prince Albert II Foundation, the UN Foundation
and the Club de Madrid signed an agreement to commit to urgent
and concerted action to address climate change.
The GLCA, a multi-stakeholder coalition of world leaders,
including former heads of state and government as well as
leaders from business, government and civil society from more
than 20 countries, released in 2007 a comprehensive framework
of recommendations to reach a global climate change agreement
after 2012 and decrease carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. The
recommendations were initially presented by GLCA co-chairs
former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and former U.S. Senator
Timothy E. Wirth at the G-8’s Gleneagles Dialogue on
Climate Change in Berlin last September. The GLCA recommendations
recognize that climate change presents a tremendous opportunity
to spur the development of low-cost, low-carbon technologies
that will create new jobs and economic growth.
As a member of the Advisory Board of DARA’s
Humanitarian Response Index (HRI), Jose Maria Figueres moderated
a DARA organized multi-stakeholder workshop in Geneva with
donors, NGOs and representatives of international organisations.
The workshop aimed to disseminate information about the HRI
and integrate the contributions made by the different humanitarian
actors to further strengthen the methodology of the Index.
The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI), is the first instrument
in the world to measure the individual performance of humanitarian
donors. The HRI focuses on the members of the OECD Development
Assistance Committee (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States,
and the European Commission) contrasting their performance
with that established in the Principles of Good Humanitarian
Donorship, defined and approved by the donors.
During President Figueres’s recent
visit to Dubai, he was interviewed by CNBC World's "Business
Arabia” host, Nadine Hawa, on how to mitigate Climate
Change in the Gulf region. They also discussed his participation
in the forthcoming National Projects Holding Company of Kuwait’s
expedition to the Arctic to study the affects of Climate Change
on the Arctic’s edge. The entire interview is available
below.
Part 1:
Part 2:
30 January - 1 February
Troika Dialog, Russia's largest Financial
Brokerage firm, organised "The Russia Forum", in
Moscow, to discuss Russia's global position and future perspectives.
Over 1,000 participants, mainly from the financial community
around the world, attended the event.
The inaugural session discussed "Russia in the Global
Marketplace", and President Figueres participated as
one of the discussion leaders. Other discussion leaders included
Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor
(1998-2005); Carlos Gohn, President and CEO of Renault, Nissan;
Yegor Gaidar, Director of the Institute for the Economy in
Transition; and David Nadler, Vice Chairman Marsh & McLennan
Companies Inc.
On the occasion of the Lehman Brothers
- Harvard Business Review Global Insight Lecture on 21-22
January, which was inaugurated by Jose Manuel Barroso, European
Commission President, José Maria Figueres delivered
the closing address on 22 January.
