With only months to usher in the next round of climate negotiations at COP27 in Egypt, former Grenada cabinet minister Simon Stiell has been appointed the new Executive Secretary of the Germany-based United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.
From March 2013 to June 2022, Stiell, an engineer, served as a senior minister in the Government of Grenada, holding the portfolios of Minister for Climate Resilience and the Environment for five years. He also served as Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Minister of State with responsibility for Human Resource Development and the Environment, and as a junior minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
It is now 18 years since Grenada was on the frontline of climate change when Hurricane Ivan scoured the island almost to its roots. Stiell is among the latest in a cadre of Caribbean diplomats “punching above the region’s weight” on environmental issues at the UN.
He has often exhorted the world’s largest polluters to set more ambitious climate goals and to deliver the finance they have long promised to affected developing countries, including small island developing states. Prior to his return to Grenada, Stiell had a successful career spanning 14 years within the technology sector, holding senior executive positions in a number of industry-leading companies, from Silicon Valley-based technology start-ups to major corporations including Nokia and GEC.
