Achim Steiner Appointed Executive Director for UNEP

Achim Steiner Appointed Executive Director for UNEP
A new Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been appointed to succeed two-term incumbent Klaus Toepfer.
Achim Steiner, currently the Director-General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), will assume the role for a four-year term starting on June 16, 2006.

“He has worked both at grassroots level and at the highest levels of international policy-making to address the connections between environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic development,” a spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said.
Mr. Toepfer described his successor as “an outstanding individual among a field of outstanding candidates. I am delighted that Achim Steiner has accepted this important international post at an organization that has a key role in delivering sustainable development, fighting poverty, realizing social justice and achieving stability in the 21st century”.
UNEP, together with UNDP and the World Bank, is one of the three implementing agencies of the GEF.

Additional Information

Achim Steiner's Bio (pdf 8kb)
UNEP website
IUCN website