Jukka Uosukainen appointed director of UNEP’s climate and technology initiative

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today the appointment of Jukka Uosukainen as the Director of the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN).

The CTCN, the operational arm of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Technology Mechanism, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resilience to changing weather patterns, drought, soil erosion, and other impacts of climate change in developing nations.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), congratulated Mr. Uosukainen and said that CTCN is now ready to fulfill its mandate by assisting developing countries to make informed decisions about mitigation and adaptation technologies that suit their needs.

“With the appointment of its new Director, the Climate Technology Centre and Network is now ready to make a substantive contribution to accelerating the use of existing and new technologies that can lead the way towards a low-carbon future and improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries, who are dealing with climate change impacts in their daily lives.” said Mr. Steiner.

“The facility is a further building block towards building resilience, as the world strides towards a post-2015 climate change agreement."

“Mr. Uosukainen's strong credentials and previous experience in development cooperation, climate change and multilateral environmental frameworks make him an ideal candidate, bringing leadership and vision to this important position.” he added.

The CTCN aims to overcome the historic challenges of mobilizing funds and eliminating policy and technical barriers to promote accelerated, diversified and scaled-up transfer of environmentally sound technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, consistent with the national socio-economic and sustainable development priorities of the requesting countries.

Mr. Jukka Uosukainen has worked in the national and international environmental sector for more than two decades, chairing and facilitating various UN committees, including of the UNFCCC and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). More recently, he served as the Special Envoy for Climate Change for the Government of Finland.

Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said, “I would like to congratulate Jukka Uosukainen for being chosen for this important role. I am sure with his leadership the CTCN can proceed to realize its goal of accelerating and scaling-up clean energy, energy efficiency and technologies that can assist in combating and coping with climate change,” she said.

“As nations work towards a new universal climate agreement in 2015, the fully operational CTCN provides an important signal that the global infrastructure to combat climate change is in place and can deliver," said Ms Figueres.

Expected outcomes of the CTCN's work are reduced greenhouse gas emission intensity and climate vulnerability as well as improved local innovative capacities. Private and public investment in adaptation and mitigation will be mobilised on a greater scale and collaboration and peer learning on technology transfer and deployment across and within developing countries will be the norm.