The UN has selected former Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa as its next UN climate chief to succeed Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres, who will step down in July.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon concluded the selection process and his decision still requires approval after consultation by the Bureau of the UNFCCC, the body said in a note on its website.

In her role as foreign secretary, Espinosa chaired the 2010 UN climate negotiations in Cancun, which were widely credited with rebuilding the shattered multilateral process following the collapse of the Copenhagen summit the previous year.

“Patricia is precisely the right person at the right time for this job … The journey ahead will require an ample supply of commitment, ingenuity, purposefulness and a deft human touch, attributes she has often displayed in her many diplomatic roles,” said Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, in a statement.

Espinosa is currently Mexico’s ambassador to Germany, and will remain in the country to take up the Bonn-based role as UNFCCC Executive Secretary.

The role will become a more elevated position of ‘under-secretary general’, putting it on a par with the heads of the UN’s Environment and Development Programmes.

French climate envoy Laurence Tubiana and UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s climate advisor and Hungarian diplomat Janos Pasztor had reportedly been candidates for the position.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com