Mr. Ovais Sarmad of India has been appointed the Deputy Executive Secretary in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
He is currently the Chief of Staff to the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, has an experience of nearly 27 years.
Born in 1960, he has a degree in commerce from Osmania University.
The UNFCCC entered into force on 21 March 1994. Today, it has near-universal membership. The 197 countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention.
The UNFCCC is a “Rio Convention”, one of three adopted at the “Rio Earth Summit” in 1992. Its sister Rio Conventions are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification. The three are intrinsically linked. It is in this context that the Joint Liaison Group was set up to boost cooperation among the three Conventions, with the ultimate aim of developing synergies in their activities on issues of mutual concern. It now also incorporates the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system is the ultimate aim of the UNFCCC.