I happened to be in Bonn, Germany, last summer when Christiana Figueres took over as head of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), replacing the charismatic Dutch man, Yvo De Boer.

Christiana Figueres comes from a famous political family in Costa Rica — her father served as President of Costa Rica three times and is considered to be the founder of modern democracy in the country, while her older brother also served as president and is credited with having initiated the country onto a path of sustainable development. She is herself a highly educated professional who founded the Centre for Sustainable Development in the Americas.

In Bonn, a special plenary was held during the UNFCCC negotiations, where Yvo De Boer gave his farewell speech. His successor, Christiana Figueres, gave him a pair of sturdy shoes as a farewell gift, eliciting laughs as she explained how difficult it would be for her to fill his much larger ones. On 8 July, 2010 she took the helm of the UNFCCC and began one of the trickiest jobs in the world — one that she initially described as “thankless”. When she later met our group of journalists, she talked about “the miracle of negotiations” and the need for “gradual incremental efforts”.

I suppose that is what happened in Cancun, Mexico last December when small advances were made in the international negotiations with the setting up of a “Green Climate Fund” to help developing countries cope with climate change.

Two weeks ago, Christiana Figueres was invited to Pakistan by the Ministry of Environment to visit the flood affected areas and see for herself the impacts of climate change on the country. Since 1947, Pakistan has been affected by five major floods. As the global climate changes, the intensity of annual monsoon flooding is expected to increase.

Christiana Figueres visited camps for flood affected families in Sehwan Sharif and noted that there was a great chance for Pakistan to present to the world a model of “building back better” in a climate resilient reconstruction programme.

According to Shafqat Kakakhel, a former UNEP official who met Christiana Figures during her visit, “Pakistan has to first prepare a plan and then ask for international support. We should not just ask for money — then our case is not as strong”. The idea is to rebuild in such a way that, if we ever have flooding of this magnitude again, the damages will be minimal.

Christiana Figueres later spoke to other members of the core group on climate change that is currently advising the government. She commended a couple of positive actions that Pakistan has undertaken recently in the global negotiations. The Pakistani delegation was well prepared at the UN Climate Change Conference 2010 in Cancun, armed with easily readable policy briefs produced by Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and LEAD-Pakistan, an NGO based in Islamabad.

These dealt with adaptation, finance, transfer of technology, forests and nationally appropriate mitigation actions for Pakistan and it was helpful for the delegates to update themselves on these important building blocks of the negotiations.

First of all, Christiana Figueres commended the Pakistani delegation’s contributions to the discussions on vulnerability in the international negotiations. Pakistan has been trying to push for a wider definition of countries that are regarded as “particularly vulnerable” to climate change — currently confined to the world’s least developed nations, small island developing states threatened by rising sea levels and African countries affected by floods and droughts.

This excludes a number of developing countries like Pakistan, which are proposing a redefinition on the grounds that they are also likely to be hit hard by global warming (as was evident during the floods last year).

The question of exactly which nations are regarded as especially vulnerable has become more important because they are likely to be first in line for funding to help them cope with the effects of global warming.

Pakistan had proposed a change in the definition of particularly vulnerable countries in the UNFCCC text. While they did not succeed in doing that in Cancun, they did manage to do something else about broadening the text.

Thanks to behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Pakistani delegation, who insisted on some changes and additional language to be added to the final texts, the ‘particularly vulnerable’ group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), small island states and African countries are no longer singled out for priority funding. The language is much broader now in the final ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Shared Vision’ texts, which means other countries badly affected by climate change like Pakistan can also receive this funding soon.

Christiana Figueres also commended the Pakistani delegation for their contribution to the dialogue on finance. The Pakistani delegation had certainly done their homework by sending a representative to attend the Geneva Dialogue where some 20 ministers met before Cancun to come up with some sort of financial architecture for the proposed “Green Climate Fund”.

Pakistan’s lead negotiator, Farrukh Iqbal Khan (who also heads the UNFCCC’s Adaptation Fund) attended this meeting and gave his input to the broad framework that was eventually designed and then presented in Cancun. From the UNFCCC’s vantage, any country actively contributing to the negotiations is a great achievement, and Pakistan’s participation was certainly recognised and appreciated by Christiana Figueres.