Video introduction:
Christiana Figueres
Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
Christiana Figueres was appointed as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2010. Ms. Figueres has been involved in climate change negotiations since 1995. Initially a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team, she was also a member of the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism and Vice President of the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties in 2008-2009.
Panel response:
Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo
Director, International Climate and Forest Initiative, Norway
Per F I Pharo has been with the International Climate and Forest Initiative as Director and previously Deputy Director since its inception in 2008, when it was set up to deliver on Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Bali promise to spend up to 3 billion Norwegian kroners annually to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.
Carlos Klink
National Secretary for Climate Change with the Brazilian Ministry of Environment
Carlos Klink is responsible for the coordination of the Brazilian National Plan to Combat Deforestation. He has a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University and also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Ecology at the University of Brasilia. He has worked on conservation strategies across ecosystems with corporations, financial institutions, trade forums, academia and NGOs, and has served on the board of Brazilian NGOs, governmental institutions and international scientific committees.
Michael Jenkins
President, Forest Trends
Michael is President of Forest Trends, a non-profit organization with a mission to expand the value of forests to society, to create and capture market values for ecosystem services, to support innovative projects and companies developing these markets, and to enhance the livelihoods of local communities living in and around those forests. He was previously an associate director at the MacArthur Foundation and a US Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
Leslie Durschinger
Founder, Terra Global Capital
Ms. Durschinger founded Terra Global Capital in 2006 to facilitate payment-for-performance based approaches for forest and land-use emission reductions that provide community benefits. Terra is a leader in forest and land-use carbon analytics and finance, providing technical expertise and investment capital to global clients. Prior to Terra, Ms. Durschinger held senior management positions in the areas of derivatives trading, investment advisory, algorithmic trading, risk management, and securities lending.