Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter

UNITED NATIONS -- Nations have officially nominated at least five candidates to lead the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, a race that is likely to heat up as governments dive into another year of treaty negotiations.

U.N. officials in New York have declined to release an official list of candidates. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make the ultimate decision in consultation with the Conference of Parties, and his close aides say new leadership will be chosen before outgoing Executive Director Yvo de Boer steps down on July 1 this year.

But governments have been making their own announcements, mostly putting forth names of high-ranking ministers or negotiators with experience in engineering the UNFCCC and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol agreement.

Thus far the list includes: Tariq Banuri of Pakistan, Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, Janos Pasztor of Hungary, Marthinus van Schalkwyk of South Africa, and Vijai Sharma of India.

News reports indicate that Indonesia, host to some of the most important climate negotiating sessions, missed its opportunity to put a name down by the deadline for nominations, which passed on Wednesday this week.

While careful to avoid saying anything damaging before a decision is made, the candidates themselves are cognizant of the huge task they face if selected, acknowledging the shortcomings of the Copenhagen Accord agreement reached last December.

"I am deeply honored by Costa Rica's nomination, but at the same time, I am profoundly humbled by the enormous task at hand," Figueres told reporters late last month.

India-Pakistan rivalry extending to UNFCCC arena

India entered one of its highest-ranked government leaders into the contest in asking Ban to consider Sharma, an official at its environment ministry, to head the post. Sharma is listed as one of four top secretaries serving directly under Indian Environment and Forestry Minister Jairam Ramesh. Sharma represented India at climate change negotiations, including at official events held outside U.N. auspices in China and India.

The fact that India put out a name led to quick speculation that its bitter rival Pakistan would follow suit. Indeed, Pakistan subsequently nominated Tariq Banuri, head of the sustainable development division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

A career civil servant, the Pakistani candidate has lengthy experience in academia as well as the nonprofit sector. Banuri served as a program director at the Stockholm Environment Institute prior to joining the United Nations as a development economics researcher. Banuri also boasts a Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a lead in the drafting of the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Pasztor currently leads Ban's climate change team and has effectively become the face of Ban's behind-the-scenes efforts to nudge nations toward a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Pasztor acknowledged that he is in the running but declined to comment. He did confirm that he will not take part in the selection process, which negates potential concerns over conflicts of interest.

"I am not connected with the process that collects nominations, and which undertakes the selection process," Pasztor replied in an e-mail. "This is done in the office of the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General." Ban and his top aides were away on a foreign tour yesterday and were unavailable to comment.

U.N. watchers have yet to form opinions on the five known candidates, as no official list or biographies have been put forth by Ban's office. Yet experts say Pasztor is a strong candidate, given the close work he is already doing with Ban.

But others point to Figueres, the only woman among the five contenders, as the one to watch. The high level of attention and energy Costa Rica is bringing to her candidacy suggests she is shaping up to be the lead candidate.

'We have not struck the iceberg yet'

Figueres has been a top climate change negotiator for her famously eco-friendly nation since 1995, stretching back to the beginnings of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. A fluent speaker of Spanish, English and German (UNFCCC offices are based in Bonn, Germany), Figueres holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics. She is also credited with designing climate change programs in eight Latin American countries.

Perhaps most crucially, Figueres served on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), arguably one of the most powerful bodies in the climate change field. The CDM approves international greenhouse gas offset programs and awards them Certified Emission Reductions, the tradable offset credits potentially worth millions to project developers and carbon market traders. Figueres is also given credit for the idea of "programmatic CDM," the fastest-growing segment of the mechanism that awards credits to broader carbon reduction programs rather than specific abatement projects.

"We believe that Ms. Figueres can play a key role in the executive secretariat building bridges and building understanding among the key players in the climate change issue," Costa Rica's U.N. ambassador, Jorge Urbina, told reporters last month at a press conference to introduce the country's candidate to the world.

Van Schalkwyk, a white South African who heads the ministry of tourism, has reportedly been instrumental in keeping his nation engaged on the climate issue.

While generally pleased with de Boer's handling of his office, advocates are hopeful that a new face at the UNFCCC will quiet the skeptics and encourage new progress in international talks.

"A cynic might compare competition for this role to fighting about who should captain the Titanic as she sails towards inevitable destruction," writes Chris Spence, an official at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, in an analysis. "But unlike the Titanic, the UNFCCC is still afloat, and science suggests we have not struck the iceberg yet. The new 'captain' of the climate negotiations, whoever she or he may be, still has the chance to make a difference."

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