Dear colleagues and friends,
Many of you will no doubt be aware of the sad passing of Chebet, our dear friend and climate change champion.
Along with his career as a politician and public servant, including his most recent post as Uganda’s Commissioner for Climate Change, Chebet has provided leadership and a great example to others about what it means to implement climate change action.
As you will know he was also Uganda’s national coordinator for the UN CC:Learn project, helping to develop one of the very first National Climate Change Learning Strategies, back in 2011. In 2017, he became a UN CC:Learn global ambassador helping to raise the profile of Action on Climate Empowerment, which is rooted in Article 6 of the Convention. In simple terms, Chebet believed that climate change education, in all its forms, is one of the defining ways in which humanity will be able to stand up to the challenge. We agree with you Chebet and we thank you for your service and your leadership.
Most recently Chebet played an instrumental role in promoting this agenda within the Convention negotiations leading a formal submission to the UNFCCC, providing a keynote speech during SBI 48, and helping to formulate the first COP Decision on education and training; subsequently adopted at COP 24.
We will miss Chebet’s gentlemanly and reassuring presence in the climate change negotiations but we also feel confident that his influence will continue to be felt through all that had the privilege to know him and to work with him. Our deep sympathies to Chebet’s family and friends at this time of sadness, and yet justifiable pride.
The UN CC:Learn Secretariat
Geneva