KPMG nabs de Boer, hopes for more

After facing many disappointments since taking the post as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer has announced that he will be moving on to greener pastures, he (and everyone else) hopes. During his four-year tenure, de Boer took many baby steps toward reaching a formal accord to control greenhouse gas emissions—and did raise the profile of many climate change issues. But in the end, he was unable to forge the relationships between countries that would have paved the way for a formal climate change treaty at the Copenhagen summit in December 2009.

Next steps for de Boer? He'll be heading to KPMG, where he'll serve as global advisor on climate and sustainability issues, and he will also be associated with several universities. De Boer claims that the disappointing outcome at Copenhagen is unrelated to his decision to leave his post, and that he had been searching for a new job before the summit took place. In his official statement, De Boer says, "I have always maintained that while governments provide the necessary policy framework, the real solutions must come from business. Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen."

Sustainability has undoubtedly become a hot topic in the private sector over the past few years, and this just might be the stage de Boer has been looking for to see some real results.