In the context of COP 16 celebrated in Cancún, Mexico, President Figueres presided over the first edition of the Gitaton Awards Ceremony, organized by the Carbon War Room and the Gigaton Throwdown.
The award recognizes companies that have shown the greatest leadership and commitment to achieving carbon reductions.
José María also moderated a session at the “World Climate Summit”.
As Chair of the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), President Figueres presented the first Annual Fairness Award, to Ela Bhatt, founder of SEWA in India, for her pioneering work in favor of women. This activity took place in Washington DC, United States, and the ceremony was keynoted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Given his work on the competitiveness of nations, President Figueres was invited to participate in the opening session of the 4th Meeting of the Americas Competitiveness Forum 2010(ACF) in Atlanta, United States. This activity is the preeminent economic and commercial event in the Americas. It brings together the business communities with the competitiveness authorities and councils from all Caribbean and Latin American countries. President Figueres also presented the document entitled “Key Elements for a 2020 Competitiveness Agenda in the Americas”, which he is a co-author of. Download document.
President Figueres was invited to moderate a working session at the headquarters of the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. This session, organized together with UNEP, consisted of a high level discussion on International Environmental Governance.
President Figueres Chairs the Carbon War Room, whose board met in New York to review the progress the organization is making. The Carbon War Room identifies sectors of the global economy in which either through the addressing of policy failures, or reinventing business models, carbon emissions can be reduced at the gigaton level.
José María also participated in the “Business Climate 2010” activity, convened by the Carbon War Room for the private sector.
President Figueres participated in the sixth edition of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). This event, celebrated in New York, gathers over one thousand leaders from different sectors of the global society, to discuss and work on helping solve challenges that would improve livelihoods around the world. Jose Maria moderated a working session on Climate Change in which Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, and Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of UNFCCC, were discussion leaders.
As Chairman of the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), President Figueres presided over the Board of Directors meetings that took place in New York. The GFI seeks a more equitable and sustainable approach to globalization, by expanding the reach of its benefits and opportunities to those at the bottom of the pyramid.
Invited by the Executive MBA Program of Thunderbird University, President Figueres shared with the students of this program the importance for developing nations of foreign direct investment, to create jobs and economic development. During his tenure in office, President Figueres personally led numerous investment promotion trips, and as the most significant achievement of these efforts INTEL invested in Costa Rica, the only Latin American country in which they have done so.
President Figueres was invited to address a crowd of tens of thousands on the National Mall in Washington D.C., gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and to urge Congress to pass climate and energy legislation. In his speech, President Figueres warned that, when it comes to climate change, "we have to get it right the first time – we can only have a plan A because there is no planet B."
President Figueres was invited to deliver a keynote presentation to students at Duke University on climate change and sustainability, with a particular emphasis on the opportunities this presents for Latin America. The event was hosted by United College Conference at Duke University, and sponsored by ‘Mi Gente’. President Figueres emphasised the importance of moving towards a sustainable exit out of the economic crisis, that creates jobs and economic activity by migrating to the low carbon economy.
President Figueres participated in the inauguration of the “Creating Climate Wealth Conference”, organised by the Carbon War Room in partnership with Earth Day Network. The conference brought together over 200 entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers, to discuss the transition to a low carbon economy. He spoke on the opening panel, which brought together leading perspectives of the challenge of addressing climate change, alongside Sir Richard Branson, Craig Cogut, David Steiner and Sarah Greenstein.
President Figueres serves as Chairman of the Carbon War Room. The mission of the Carbon War Room is to identify sectors of the global economy where, by addressing market failures in an entrepreneurial way, gigaton level reductions of carbon can be achieved.
In his capacity as Chairman of the Carbon War Room, President Figueres together with Sir Richard Branson and the Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, launched the “Green Capital Challenge“ in Vancouver, Canada, on the eve of the Winter Olympics. The objective of this event, attended by more than 80 mayors, environmental officers and investors was to share best practices amongst cities with respect to reducing emissions in the built environment.
With a majority of the world’s population now living in cities, the built environment is responsible for approximately 20% of total carbon emissions. Reducing them through conventional technologies can be done today in a profitable way, creating both jobs economic activity.
Vancouver has the lowest carbon emissions per inhabitant of any city in the North American continent, at 4.2 tons / person.
Invited by TERI Institute, President Figueres participated in the “Delhi World Sustainable Development Summit 2010”, convened in Delhi, India. This Summit provided a good opportunity for global leaders to take stock of the COP 15 aftermath, and begin planning the road ahead to Cancun (COP 16). President Figueres moderated the closing plenary session, with the participation of Rajendra K Pachauri, TERI’s founder and Nobel Laureate, and Yvo de Boer, Executive Director of the UNFCCC.
