Essay by Eric Worrall
Surprisingly former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern wasn’t on the list.
UN CLIMATE TALKS
2 July 2026 13:01
Q&A: Where do the UN secretary general candidates stand on climate change?Candidates are being nominated to take over as the UN secretary general, when António Guterres steps down after nearly a decade in the role at the end of 2026.
Since becoming the ninth secretary general on 1 January 2017, Guterres has been a strong advocate for climate action, saying in January 2026:
“We have been outspoken on the urgent need for climate action, demanding ambition and working to rally governments, businesses and civil society.”
…
Thus far, five of the six candidates are from South or Central America: Michelle Bachelet Jeria; Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis; Rafael Mariano Grossi; María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés; and Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett.
The outlier is Macky Sall, a former Senegalese president nominated by the east African nation of Burundi.
…
Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Dr Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean diplomat, politician and doctor, nominated to be the next UN secretary general by Brazil and Mexico.…
As president [of Chile] and in public office, she consistently framed action on climate change as a human-rights obligation and a preventive tool to mitigate the worst impacts, arguing that “there is no space for [climate] denial”.
…
Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis
…In 2021, Grynspan became the first woman to be appointed secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
As part of this role, in February 2022, she outlined the UN’s vision for a sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic that “avoid[s] another lost decade of development for developing countries”.
…
Rafael Mariano Grossi
Rafael Mariano Grossi is an Argentine diplomat and has served as the director-general of the UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – since 2019.
…Grossi takes credit for helping to achieve “global consensus around the need for nuclear power in the energy transition”.
…Macky Sall
Macky Sall is a Senegalese politician who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2007 and then president from 2012 to 2024. He has been nominated by Burundi, which is currently the chair of the African Union (AU).
However, Sall’s candidacy has been rejected by other AU states, with Rwanda calling the use of a “silent procedure” to push through consensus on the African candidate for the position “a gross breach of AU rules and regulations”.
…During the early part of Sall’s presidency, Senegal discovered oil and gas reserves – and the country’s oil exports have since surged from $0.4bn in 2015 to $2.4bn in 2024.
He was supportive of the African oil-and-gas sector, with much of the development of Senegal’s first oil production site undertaken during his term in office.
…
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés
…Before her political career, Espinosa was known for her work with Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon and biodiversity conservation.
…Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett
…In her vision statement for the role, Birkett places a strong emphasis on climate finance and unmet sustainable development goals.
…
Read more: https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-where-do-the-un-secretary-general-candidates-stand-on-climate-change/
What a lineup. The only candidate who has shown any support for oil and gas, African candidate Macky Sall, has been accused of Crimes Against Humanity for his allegedly harsh suppression of demonstrations against his Presidency in 2021.
Senegal opposition leader launches French legal action against incumbent President Sall
President Sall and accomplices are alleged to have ‘ordered and supervised the commission’ of crimes ‘against unarmed demonstrators since March 2021’ in the suit, which was filed in Paris by Ousmane Sonko.
Le Monde with AFPPublished on June 22, 2023, at 12:58 pm (Paris), updated on July 4, 2023, at 9:52 am
Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has filed a criminal complaint in France for “crimes against humanity” against President Macky Sall, his lawyer said, as well as requesting a probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Sall is in Paris on Thursday, June 22, and Friday, June 23, for a global climate finance summit called by President Emmanuel Macron.
Read more: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/22/senegal-opposition-leader-launches-french-legal-action-against-incumbent-president-sall_6035338_4.html
Sonko alleges that deadly clashes following his sentencing to jail time this month are the latest step in “a generalized and systematic attack on the civilian population” of Senegal since March 2021, lawyer Juan Branco told AFP late on Wednesday, June 21.
…
Personally I think Macky Sall should get the job. Not because I think he would do a good job, but because it would be hilarious to have a UN Secretary General who might end up with an international arrest warrant. And the rest of the candidates just look like boring apparatchiks.
WackyS all ??
1 Macky 6 Whackies.
Only crappy choices.
Chicks overrepresented
and Macky the knife would probably be the worst choice as they can pull the Obama trick on a global stage by labelling any criticism of his policies as racist and getting away with everything?.
And there won’t be an arrest warrant as long as he pushes the usual crap-
the shady way he got his nomination via massive violation of rule and still becoming head of AU after illegally extending his presidency, imprisoning opposition and ruining Senegals economy (a skill loved by UN),
and still appearing on top again means that he is totally embedded within the system and very well protected.
My guess is that he will win and be used to force the Rainbow crap onto Africans who absolutely don’t go along with LGBT shit.
Rossi is the best choice – no “historical” 1st time win-BS of a chick or African that they’ll exploit for the next decade .
Just an off the mill Borg who will deliver agendas on Rockefellers UN territory that have been written down on Rockefellers territory in Italy when the Club of Rome was created.
Agreed about Rossi. He did a reasonable job as head of IAEA. He avoided any public panic over combat in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 2022 and thereafter.
The combat had zero to do with any danger to the public in Chernobyl. Prior to the war one could play tourist there. Some people live in the zone as do tens fo thousands of wildlife who are doing just fine. Replacing the cement cover with a better cover was done by 2019.
Sir, please don’t waste your time speculating. The UN has been in a medically induced coma since a long time. Euthanasia is long overdue. This is the only solution. Thank you.
Yep, it did so badly at its principle objective of stopping wars that it decided a better tactic was to adopt socialism and impoverish all but the ‘elite’ of the world so no one had the will to fight.
Trump is making the UN superfluous. The globalists are losing to American dominance and liberty.
UN is useless. It doesn’t matter who replaces irrelevant Gutierrez.
Who will calm the BOILING SEAS?
“The United Nations Secretary-General earns a total annual salary of approximately $418,348, which is comprised of a net base salary of $238,375 and an annual post-adjustment (cost of living) multiplier of $179,973.”
That’s just a tip.
No, it’s not useless – it’s harmful. And SG Gutierez, formerly the President of the Socialist International, has been absolutely relevant.
Having sense of humor seems to be challenging for certain people. Except a particular person belongs to the UN fun club. In either case “-1” to my comment is excused.
Surprisingly former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern wasn’t on the list ….LOL. The SG job is rotated amoung the worlds regions. European and Australia?NZ have just had their turn with Guiterrez nen
Mayubfis says.. “avoid another lost decade of development for developing countries”
So she must be all for the implementation of solid dispatchable electricity supplies that the international banks have basically refused to help them fund. ie COAL, GAS and NUCLEAR.
Birkett has ” sustainable development goals.”
The only way to get sustainable development is with dispatchable electricity supplies such as Coal, oil, gas and nuclear
Wind and solar are the very opposite of “sustainable”
The UN’s primary mission was supposed to be peace, yet it hasn’t done squat to resolve all the wars going on, and loads up its agencies with jokes, like some Muslim dictatorship as head of a human rights agency.
Just disband the damn thing, or at least get the US out of it.
I think developed countries should form their own organization with an emphasis on helping raise other countries up, unlike the current UN which aims to drag developed countries down.
Actually they already did – it’s called OECD. Unfortunately it’s poisoned by climatism as many other int. organizations alike. As to the UN it drags both developed and developing countries down. Thank you.
What other types beyond climate activists/alarmists would be nominated for such a position? This is the reason that the UN has so little credibility on environmental matters; it’s just using them as levers to attract higher donations from progressive nations toward the leftist ones that share its share-the wealth philosophy.
It looks like Australia and the UK companies are the main external backers of the oil and gas projects in Senegal for development and export facilities. An American company discovered the first natural gas field there.
Which ones are getting support in the back rooms from Bernie and Soros?
Which ones got money from past UN vote buying efforts against Israel and for climate scare?
Given that USA is the main food supplier for this useless lot of blood suckers, I wonder if POTUS Trump will get a seat on the interview panel.
Trygve Lie (Norway) — Feb. 1, 1946 – April 10, 1953
Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden) — April 10, 1953 – Sept. 18, 1961
U Thant (Myanmar) — Nov. 30, 1962 – Dec. 31, 1971
Kurt Waldheim (Austria) — Jan. 1, 1972 – Dec. 31, 1981
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru) — Jan. 1, 1982 – Dec. 31, 1991
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) — Jan. 1, 1992 – Dec. 31, 1996
Kofi Annan (Ghana) — Jan. 1, 1997 – Dec. 31, 2006
Ban Ki-moon (South Korea) — Jan. 1, 2007 – Dec. 31, 2016
António Guterres (Portugal) — Jan. 1, 2017 – Present
meh.
“The United Nations Secretary-General earns a total annual salary of approximately $418,348, which is comprised of a net base salary of $238,375 and an annual post-adjustment (cost of living) multiplier of $179,973.”
cool!
Leave the job vacant and lapse the salary funds. Better yet, shut down the UN. It is the most worthless organization in the world. Number two is still the EU although our US Senate is almost in a tie. Then comes the House and on the outside making a charge is our judicial system.
Having met & had dealings with a great many members of various UN Agencies in past commercial life focused upon mobile satellite telecommunication servicing remote regions of our planet (working in the international telecommunications industry ie; UN Agencies like UNICEF, UNWFP, UNHCR etc), I can’t recall meeting any from with those UN Agencies who had come from the real world ie they had all come from a past life involved in charitable origins and/or non-commercial enterprises. None, in IMHO displayed any real world/life experience in managing a business from the bottom up, with responsibility to shareholders for the bottom line ROI. They had no appreciation of commercial reality.
I imagine the job description contains “Able to lie and exaggerate in a convincing manner” because that’s what UN secretary generals have done for years.
Not necessarily. They have a whole Department of Global Communications that is subordinated to SG and it professionally does all that you say.
Senegal a wonderful country. if one wants to get ahead just bribe the person in charge. The central american and south american wanta bees are all from countries filled with corruption as well. They all parrott the climate as actually fixing the problems would get them shot.
Incidentally the court in france has no jurisdiction on Sengal. This is just lawwar by the opposition which needs to get out a checkbook and bribe the ones in charge.