Irene Suárez Pérez is the Senior Strategy Advisor to the Global Biodiversity Consortium (made up of ETH-Zurich CrowtherLab, Restor and SEED), she is a member of Race to Zero’s Expert Peer Review Group and member of the Advisory Group to Global FoodBanking Network.
As a development expert she is focussed on opportunities to drive system transformation via climate and nature action for people and planet. As the leader of the nature team at Climate Champions and, prior to that, Lead for Nature-Based Solutions for the United Nations Secretary-General, she has convened and worked with partners to co-create initiatives such as the Synergies Joint Statement on Climate, Nature and People, the 2030 Breakthroughs for nature, Finance Sector for Deforestation Action, the leadership practiceof Race to Zero, Nature in GFANZ transition plans guidance, One Planet Business for Biodiversity, the Nature and Climate Action Navigator amongst other efforts for equitable development and a net-zero, nature positive future.
She led the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) at the UNFCCC negotiations for the Katowice rule book and negotiated the adaptation regime in the Paris Agreement. She was the lead UNFCCC negotiator for Costa Rica, whilst she was senior climate policy head for The Nature Conservancy. She is an economist of the L.University of Costa Rica, specialised in development studies in the Latin America Faculty of Social Sciences and the Erasmus University-ISS. Her publications can be found here. She is the mother of Javier and loves being in nature and trekking.