Christiana Figueres
Biography
Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen DBE (born 7 August 1956) is a Costa Rican diplomat who has led national, international and multilateral policy negotiations. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in July 2010, six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen. During the next six years she worked to rebuild the global climate change negotiating process, leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement, widely recognized as a historical achievement. Over the years Figueres has worked in the fields of climate change, sustainable development, energy, land use, and technical and financial cooperation. In 2016, she was Costa Rican candidate for the United Nations Secretary General and was an early frontrunner, but decided to withdraw after garnering insufficient support. She is a founder of the Global Optimism group co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac of The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (2020), and co-host of the popular podcast Outrage and Optimism. Description above from the Wikipedia article Christiana Figueres, licensed under CC BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For & Full Filmography5 Titles
Drama Series - 2022, 16 episodes • Main Cast Role
The big names behind the big stories. Laura Kuenssberg talks to those making the news, inside and outside politics.
Drama Series - 2024, 16 episodes • Main Cast Role
A look at how the fight between saving the planet and growing our economies has become humanity’s biggest challenge.
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Conceived in lockdown, and totally crowdsourced, the film is made from voice notes sent in from a variety of the most trusted humans on the planet, and the pictures are made from thousands of donated images sent in from citizens on every continent.
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Self
Nations United is a special, first of its kind film, created by the United Nations on its 75th Anniversary and to mark five years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the midst of a pandemic radically transforming our world, Nations United tells the story of the world as it is, as it was, and as it could be. It focuses on the solutions and action we need to tackle poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change.
Movie - 2016, 2h 15m • as Herself
Over 65 years ago, when Costa Rica became the largest nation in the world to disband their military, they redirected national resources towards public education and universal health care, fostering a wide middle class and a society committed to inclusion. Since then, Costa Rica has earned the number one spot in the Happy Planet Index, a ranking of countries based on measures of environmental protection and the happiness and health of its citizens. This documentary brings attention to Costa Rica's inspirational national project, examining the true value of happiness, health, and nonviolence as a defense policy. Pointed contrasts are made with recent U.S. debates over austerity, the military industrial complex and the "permanent war" economy.