Kaveh Zahedi
Deputy Director, Division of Technology, Industry & Economics (DTIE), United Nations Enviroment Programme (UNEP)
Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Paris. He oversees the work of UNEP-DTIE covering green economy, resource efficiency, energy, chemicals, ozone and waste.
He is also the interim Head of the Secretariat of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) for reducing short lived climate pollutants - a major initiative to help countries protect human health and the environment and slow the rate of near term climate change by reducing key short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon and HFCs.
Prior to his current appointment, Kaveh was the UNEP Climate Change Coordinator and responsible for the organisation’s climate programme and work with the UNFCCC as well as setting up major partnerships such as the UN-REDD Programme (with UNDP and FAO). Kaveh was the Acting Director of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (2004-2007) and also worked at UNEP headquarters in Kenya (1995-1999) and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico (1999-2004).
Before joining UNEP, he worked at a Non Governmental Organisation in the UK as project manager for development microfinance and credit projects in Latin America and the Middle East.
Kaveh holds a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA, and a BSc (Econ.) first class degree in Economics & Geography, from University College London.
Fast action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon, methane and some hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) has the potential to prevent millions of premature deaths each year, avoid annual crop losses of some of the world’s staple crops and slow down the warming expected by 2050 by as much as half a degree. Just over one year on from its launch, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) has become the largest global mechanism for collective action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. The presentation will cover the opportunities and benefits of mitigating SLCPs for clean air and climate change and draw examples from the work of the CCAC to demonstrate action on the ground.