Liz fought a good fight

“I thought she did Barbados proud.”    Dr Chris Hackett, who untila few weeks ago was Barbados’ ambassador to the United Nations (UN), was referring to Opposition Senator Liz Thompson, the country’s candidate for one of the top-level positions in the world body: Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC.“She was seen as a good candidate, someone who has had lots of experience at the political level, working in the area of climate change and sustainable development,” said the former top diplomat. “From the feedback we received after she was short-listed and interviewed, we understandshe did a very, very good interview.”Hackett participated in the “consultations” and the lobbying of member states and interested organisations on Thompson’s behalf.Reached furtherNow that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has selected Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican who was tipped for the position from the get-go by UN insiders, it’s clear that Thompson reached much further in the selection process than most observers had expected.With 12 candidates from India, Kenya, Brazil, Hungary, Canada, South Africa, Barbados and other countries – some of them current or former ministers, experts, high level technocrats and even the head of the Secretary General’s climate-change support team as well as the director of the Division of Sustainable Development, it would have been easy to dismiss her chances from the outset.Indeed some analysts had written her off even before the nominations were closed. They argued that a person who had the backing of most small island developing states would be of little consequence in the race, going up against Brazil, India,South Africa and other influential member states.As if that wasn’t bad enough, within the UN the word was circulating from the beginning that the job would go either to the South African or Costa Rican. In the end there were the two nominees recommended to the Secretary General.But the sceptics were in for a surprise when Thompson was short-listed to face a seven-member international panel of interviewers from within the UN system.While not much is known about the system used to screen the candidates and select the top candidates for the next level, it is believed that all the résumés were intensely scrutinised and the backgrounds of the nominees were checked for accuracy and suitability for the job. Ultimately, the nominees from India, South Africa, Hungary, Costa Rica and Barbados were asked to return for a 90-minute session with the panel.Interesting questionsThompson, in an interview with the SUNDAY SUN, said: “Some of the questions the panel put to me were quite interesting. They asked me some technical questions about climate change, development issues on the international agenda, and my vision for UNFCCC secretariat. They also wanted to know how my view of the climate change agenda linked to the international development agenda. “They asked me to outline howI saw the accord in Copenhagen and its process. Just as important they wanted to know what I thought was going to happen at the next meetings on climate change in Mexico and South Africa. I answered them honestly and in a straightforward manner.”What the Barbados and Caricom nominee had going for her wasn’t simply her extensive ministerial experience in Barbados and the fact that at one stage she was the longest serving minister of the environment in Caricom. It was that she had been involved in many of the international climate change policy negotiations. She was also a recipient of the much sought-after United Nations Environmental Programme’s Champion Of The Earth Award. Only candidateIn addition, she was the only candidate who was an attorney with a master’s degree in business administration and a master’sin law with an academic concentration in energy policy management in developing countries.Next, according to two members of the interviewing panel, was Thompson’s ability to articulate her positions on the environment.Little wonder, then, that with rumours circulating everywhere about who would be recommended, it took a week after the interviews for the picture to become clear that Thompson wasn’t going to be among the two or three whose names would be forwarded to the Secretary General.Pros and consBut she also had some things going against her. At the top of the list was the apparent desire within the UN to give the choice plum to either South Africa or Costa Rica.“During my meetings in the lobbying process I was asked by a diplomat howa small country like Barbados could expect to win such a high-level position,” Thompson recalled.Then there was the background of the person who was eventually chosen. Figueres served as vice-presidentof the UNFCC Bureau from 2008to 2009 and was a member of the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism in 2007. She was also founder and executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Development in the Americas,a think-tank for climate-change policy.Thompson offered her congratulations to the new executive secretaryand wished her well in her new post.