Yvo de Boer is the Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), a Seoul-based international organization. He was appointed as the Director-General by the GGGI Assembly, GGGI’s supreme governing body to serve a four-year term beginning on April 15, 2014. Previously, Mr. de Boer served as KPMG’s Global Chairman of Climate Change & Sustainability Services (CC&S). In this role, he led KPMG’s international network of climate change and sustainability consulting businesses, which comprise several hundred sustainability professionals in over 60 countries. As well as leading KPMG’s CC&S agenda Mr. de Boer advised corporate leaders on the impacts of rapid environmental, social and political change and how their businesses should respond in order to grasp opportunities and manage risks.
Before joining KPMG in 2010, Mr. de Boer led the international process to respond to climate change in the role of Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2006 to 2010. During his tenure he raised the issue of climate change to the highest levels of political and media attention. He brought over 100 world leaders to Copenhagen for the international climate negotiations in December 2009 and secured commitments from over 90 countries to reduce greenhouse emissions. Throughout his career, he has focused on the economics of climate and sustainability to help policy makers and the business community understand the consequences of acting, or failing to act, in economic terms.
Prior to his UN role, he was extensively involved in European Union environmental policy as deputy Director General of the Dutch Environment Ministry. He also served as vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, and acted as an advisor to the Government of China and the World Bank. In 2011 he was appointed to chair the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change.