Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

For UN Climate Job, 11 Candidates Including from Barbados and UN, Pasztor's Only Partial Recusal

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- With the UN's approach to climate change under fire, both politically and scientifically, the race is on to replaced Yvo de Boer as head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. So far two candidates have come to UN headquarters and held press conferences: Costa Rica's Christiana Figueres and, on April 15, Barbados' Elizabeth Thompson.

  Inner City Press asked Ms. Thompson for her position on the widespread criticism of how the Copenhagen summit was run. She replied that there were both positives and negatives.

  She declined to comment on IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri's refusal to disclose how much is paid by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, among others, for his climate advisory services. She said she would comply with UN rules. Video here.

  Later on April 15, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky how many candidates there are, and whether Janos Pasztor, Ban Ki-moon's main climate advisor, is one of them:

Inner City Press: how many candidates have been put forward? And can you say either by country or region? What can you say on that topic? And can you confirm that Mr. [Janos] Pasztor is actually one of the candidates, the current advisor to the Secretary-General on climate change?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, two things. One is that, as we have mentioned before -- and it is standard practice, not just for this job but for any job -- we do not reveal the names of candidates. But I can tell you that there are 11 candidates from 11 different countries. And although we do not normally comment, as I said, on individuals, we obviously understand the interest in a candidate that works for the Secretariat and therefore we can confirm that Mr. Pasztor has been nominated by the President of Hungary. The appointment will be made following a normal competitive process run by a selection committee and in consultation with the bureau of the UNFCCC. All candidates will go through the same process. I should tell you -- and this is important -- upon the announcement of his candidacy, Mr. Pasztor was asked to dissociate himself from activities relating to the UNFCCC with immediate effect.

Inner City Press: But how is that possible, to perform the job that he is conducting without in some way dealing with the UNFCCC? Can you explain that?

Elizabeth Thompson on April 15, UN rules and Pasztor not shown

Spokesperson: What I can tell you is that it will be dealt with in a transparent manner and Mr. Pasztor’s office is clearly not involved in the process of selecting a successor to Yvo de Boer. And, as I say, he has been asked to dissociate from activities that relate to the UNFCCC, and that is with immediate effect. And that is what is happening.

  This seems like a fake and flimsy safeguard. How can one function as the UN Secretariat's main climate advisor while "dissociat[ing one]self from activities relating to the UNFCCC"? For that, with all due respect for the affable Mr. Pasztor, one should quit or take a leave of absence. It's what Shashi Tharoor did, for example, while he ran unsuccessfully for Secretary General.

  It is not enough to says like Ms. Thompson one would abide by UN rules -- because, in essence, there are no UN rules. Watch this space.

Footnote: even to the use of the UN's press briefing room, the stated rule is, questions only by journalists. But at Thursday's session, various Caricom Ambassadors spoke up with prepared statements endorsing Ms. Thompson and nothing was said about it.  It's not the ambassadors' fault -- it's the fault of Media Accrditation, which in turn fingers the UN Spokesperson's Office. So when the UN cites its suppposed rules against journalists...

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