Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen DBE was born on August 7, 1956. She is a diplomat from Costa Rica who has worked on national, international, and multilateral agreements. In July 2010, she became the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), six months after the unsuccessful COP15 meeting in Copenhagen. Over the next six years, she helped restart global climate change negotiations, leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is widely seen as a major success.

Karen has worked in areas such as climate change, technical and financial support, energy, land use, and sustainable development. In 2016, she was Costa Rica’s candidate for the United Nations Secretary General and was a strong candidate early in the process. However, she withdrew after receiving not enough support. She is a founder of the Global Optimism group, co-authored the book The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (2020) with Tom Rivett-Carnac, and co-hosts the popular podcast Outrage and Optimism.

Early life

Figueres was born in San José, Costa Rica. Her father, José Figueres Ferrer, was President of Costa Rica three separate times. Her mother, Karen Olsen Beck, worked as Costa Rica's Ambassador to Israel in 1982 and was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 1994. The couple had four children. Figueres' older brother, José Figueres Olsen, also served as President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998.

Figueres grew up in La Lucha and attended Cecilia Orlich grammar school. Later, she moved to the German Humboldt Schule in the capital and graduated from Lincoln High School. She traveled to England for one year of A Level studies before attending Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1979. As part of her anthropology studies, she lived in Bribri, Talamanca, a village far from cities in the southeastern plateau of Costa Rica for one year. She then earned a master's degree in social anthropology from the London School of Economics in 1981. She also completed a certificate in Organizational Development from Georgetown University. Figueres' daughter, Naima, was born in Guatemala in March 1988, and her daughter, Yihana, was born in Washington, D.C., in December 1989.

Early career

Figueres began her public service career as a Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Bonn, West Germany, from 1982 to 1985.

Returning to Costa Rica in 1987, Figueres was appointed Director of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Planning. There, she helped plan and lead the talks for financial and technical cooperation programs with eight European countries. She also reviewed all requests for help from the country. From 1988 to 1990, she worked as the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Agriculture. During this time, she oversaw the implementation of 22 national programs focused on training, loans, and marketing.

In 1989, Figueres moved with her husband to Washington, D.C., and spent several years raising their two daughters. In 1994, she returned to professional work and became the Director of the Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA) initiative, which is now part of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

In 1995, Figueres started and led the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas, a group that helps Latin American countries join the Climate Change Convention. She worked there for eight years.

Representing the Government of Costa Rica, Christiana Figueres was a negotiator for the United Nations Convention on Climate Change from 1995 to 2010. In 1997, she helped shape international strategies to gain support from developing countries for the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). From 2007 to 2009, she served as Vice President of the Bureau of the Climate Convention, representing Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the years, she led several important international negotiations:

• Co-chair of the Contact Group on Guidance to the CDM Executive Board: Nairobi, December 2006; Poznan, December 2008; Copenhagen, December 2009.
• Co-chair of the Contact Group on flexibility mechanisms for the post-2012 regime: Bonn, June 2008; Accra, Ghana, August 2008; Poznan, December 2008.
• Member of the Friends of the Chair Group that negotiated the Bali Action Plan for long-term cooperative action: Bali, Indonesia, December 2007.

In 2002, Figueres proposed a "Sectoral CDM" to encourage developing countries to create regional or sectoral projects based on sustainable development policies. In 2005, she published a study suggesting "programmatic CDM," where emission reductions are achieved through multiple actions over time, rather than a single project.

In December 2005, Figueres shared this idea at COP11 in Montreal and gained support from the Group of 77 and China. She then led discussions with industrialized countries, resulting in a decision to allow "programs of activities" in the CDM. Two years later, as a member of the CDM Executive Board, she helped agree on rules for submitting "programs of activities" in the CDM.

In 2008 and 2009, Figueres worked with private companies that support climate-friendly goals. She served as Senior Adviser to C-Quest Capital, a company that invests in programmatic CDM projects. She was also the Principal Climate Change Advisor to ENDESA Latinoamérica, the largest private utility in Latin America. Additionally, she was Vice Chair of the Rating Committee of the Carbon Rating Agency, the first group to use credit ratings for carbon assets.

• Vice President of the Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2008–2009.
• Board of Directors and Trustee, Winrock International, 2005–present. Chair of the Governance Committee and Member of the executive committee, 2007–?
• Board of Trustees of the Fundación para el Desarrollo

Leading the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

After the unsuccessful COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, the UN Secretary General named Christiana Figueres as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She began her first term in July 2010. When she started her role, she promoted a new strategy: shifting from the top-down approach of the Kyoto Protocol to a bottom-up method focused on national interests guided by scientific predictions.

During her time as Executive Secretary, she led the UN Climate Change Secretariat in organizing six yearly global negotiation meetings. These meetings led to the important Paris Agreement in December 2015. Her work with the yearly rotating presidencies (Mexico, South Africa, Qatar, Poland, Peru, and France) created a framework that helped each annual negotiation build on previous progress.

Under the leadership of Patricia Espinosa (Mexico), COP16 in 2010 marked a major change from the previous conference in Copenhagen. It provided support for developing nations through new programs, including the Green Climate Fund, the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, and the Cancun Adaptation Framework.

At COP17 in Durban in December 2011, governments agreed for the first time to create a new global climate change agreement by 2015, covering the period after 2020. Connie Hedegaard, the EU's top climate official, played a key role in changing the direction of the negotiations.

Efforts to create this global legal agreement began at COP18 in Doha in November 2012, when the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol was approved through the Doha Amendment. At COP19 in Warsaw in 2013, governments continued working on the global agreement while also adopting rules for reducing emissions from deforestation and a system to address harm caused by long-term climate impacts. At COP20 in Lima at the end of 2014, governments outlined the main parts of the upcoming agreement and set rules for submitting national climate plans before the 2015 negotiations. From that point, Figueres focused on increasing the ambition of the agreement to ensure it was based on science and would last for many years.

COP21 in Paris in December 2015 is recognized as an important achievement. With the leadership of the UN Secretary-General and President Hollande of France, 155 heads of state gathered in one day, a record for such meetings. On the final day, under the presidency of Laurent Fabius, all 195 governments that are part of the Climate Change Convention agreed to the Paris Agreement. The agreement aims to help the global economy shift toward low carbon and high resilience. Figueres and the French hosts ensured major negotiation challenges were resolved before the agreement was finalized.

During her time in office, Figueres worked with many groups beyond governments, including technology providers, financial institutions like insurance companies, scientists, religious groups, youth and women’s organizations, and other members of society. She encouraged these groups to join global efforts to address climate change. In 2013, she spoke to the World Coal Association, noting that the coal industry faces risks but invited it to participate in solutions.

Christiana Figueres finished her second term as Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC on July 6, 2016.

Post-UNFCCC career

After her time in office as Executive Secretary, Figueres worked as the leader of Mission 2020 and served as chair of the advisory board for The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change. She started the Global Optimism group, wrote a book called The Future We Choose with others, and co-hosts a popular podcast named Outrage and Optimism. Other roles include:

• Chair of The Earthshot Prize Foundation from 2021 to 2026
• B Team Leader (since 2016)
• Member of the Board of Directors at Impossible Foods (2021)
• Member of the Board of Directors at Acciona (since 2017)
• Member of the Board of Directors at Acciona Energía (since 2021)
• Member of the advisory board at Eni (since 2017)
• Co-chair of the Global Advisory Board at Formula E (since 2017)
• Member of the Sustainability and Legacy Commission at the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
• Member of the Board of Directors at the World Resources Institute (WRI)
• Member of the Inter-American Dialogue (since 1995)

On July 7, 2016, Christiana Figueres became the official candidate from Costa Rica for the United Nations Secretary General. She was a leading candidate but decided to leave the race in September after not receiving enough support in the third and fourth rounds of voting.

During a United Nations Secretary General debate hosted by Al Jazeera, Christiana Figueres raised her hand when asked which candidates believed victims of cholera deserved an apology. The United Nations has faced criticism for its role in the cholera outbreak in Haiti, which may have been caused by UN peacekeepers. Thirty-seven human rights groups signed a pledge asking candidates to address two issues harming the United Nations' reputation: failing to help victims of cholera in Haiti and not stopping sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. Although Figueres supported the question during the debate, her office did not agree to support the pledge.

Awards and honours

Figueres has received many honors and awards, including several honorary doctorates.

• Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), United Kingdom, 2022
• Premio con motivo de los 500 años del Descubrimiento del Estrecho de Magallanes, Chile, 2020
• Condecoración al Mérito de la Paz y la Democracia, Costa Rica, 2018
• Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau, Netherlands, 2016
• Legion of Honour, France, 2016
• Medal of the City of Paris, 2015
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1985

• 2019 Dan David Prize for combating climate change
• Ewald von Kleist peace award from the Munich Security Conference, 2016
• Hero for the Planet Award by National Geographic Magazine and Ford Motor Company, March 2001, for leadership in sustainable energy
• 2015 Hero of El País newspaper of Spain
• Fortune magazine listed her as number seven of the World's 2016 50 Greatest Leaders, the only female Latin American on the list
• Time magazine included her in the top 100 influential leaders of the world for 2016
• The Nature Journal of Science listed her first on the list of 2015 Top 10
• In November 2023, Figueres was named to the BBC's 100 Women list.

• Honorary Doctor of Human Letters, American University of Beirut, 2025
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Yale University, 2020
• Doctor of Laws, University of Bristol, 2019
• Doctor of honoris causa, The University of Edinburgh, 2019
• Honorary Degree, University of Warwick, 2017
• Honorary Degree, Cranfield University, 2017
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Georgetown University, 2016
• Honorary doctorate, Concordia University, 2015
• Honorary doctorate of law, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2014

Books

Co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, published by Manilla Press in 2020. ISBN 978-0-525-65835-1.