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The work of the UN Climate Secretariat in Bonn

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) oversees international negotiations of climate policies and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

https://p.dw.com/p/4I5d
Joke Waller-Hunter, Executive Secretary of the Climate SecretariatImage: dpa

The UNFCCC is based in Bonn, the town in which the Kyoto Protocol was finally agreed in 1991. The staff of around 170 mainly consists of scientists and climate policy experts. The climate secretariat in Bonn is headed by Joke Waller-Hunter as its Executive Secretary. Before joining the Climate Secretariat in 2002, the 56 year old Dutch woman headed the Environment Directorate of the OECD. As Dutch Deputy Director for International Environmental Affairs, she was actively involved in the preparations of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Earth Summit. In this interview, John Hay talks with the UNFCCC Executive Secretary and asks her about her mission to persuade the international community, the need to act against global warming and about the work of her organisation.