The new climate chief appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.Patricia Espinosa Cantellano of Mexico was appointed as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

According to UN Spokesperson's Office, the appointment was made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its bureau.

Cantellano will succeed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica.

UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty which entered into force in 1994.

The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conference of Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

In December 2015, at the Paris climate conference (COP 21), 196 parties to the UNFCCC adopted a historic climate agreement which aims to hold global average temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and preferably limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.