What has been the most challenging moment in your 11 years as executive secretary of the UNFCCC?
Maintaining optimism after The Hague (where the sixth conference of parties broke down without any decisions, threatening the future of the Kyoto Protocol). Another challenge was the shift of the secretariat from Geneva to France. It was a political decision with some human cost.

My relationship to the negotiations has been one of proximity, sometimes involvement, in the sense that sometimes I would be asked to provide some sort of fix for a blockage. But I have always been very conscious that the climate negotiations, like they should be, are negotiations between governments who are jealous of their positions. So my challenges are not necessarily those of a negotiator.

To what extent have the climate negotiations been able to deal with climate change?
We recognise the problem, and are starting to work out how to deal with it. Of course, recognition of the problemis a big step. There are still people who doubt the science, while others maynot doubt the science, but say well,we can deal with it later. I am one of those who is convinced that the ear-lier you start to deal with climate change, the less it will cost. The nego-tiator is going to be inspired or motivated by economic considerations