The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board has today appointed two new Co-Chairs at its nineteenth meeting in Songdo, Republic of Korea. Paul Oquist has been elected as the developing country Co-Chair, whilst Lennart Båge is the developed country Co-Chair. They replace the outgoing Co-Chairs, Ayman M. Shasly (Developing Countries) and Ewen McDonald (Developed Countries).

In light of the fully charged agenda, the Board has decided to convert today's planned informal meeting into a formal Board session. The B.19 Board meeting will therefore take place from Monday 26 February until Thursday 1 March, and will be presided by the incoming Co-Chairs.

Dr. Paul Oquist has represented the Republic of Nicaragua in international climate negotiations for many years. Dr. Oquist is currently Minister-Private Secretary for National Policies of President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and is also Executive Secretary of The Commission of the Nicaraguan Grand Interoceanic Canal. He is a Member by the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Standing Committee on Finance, and represented developing countries on the Executive Committee of the UNFCCC Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Dr. Oquist was also a two-term member of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and he has been Head of Delegation to the Climate Change Conference of Parties for Nicaragua since COP 15 in Copenhagen. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California in Berkeley, California.

Ambassador Lennart Båge has a long career as a Swedish diplomat with a focus on multilateral development cooperation. He has an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics and joined the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1974. Ambassador Båge brings a wealth of experience from being i.a. Director of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC), Head of the Multilateral Development Department of the MFA, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Executive Board Member and Acting Director General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Ambassador Båge represented Sweden i.a. in the negotiations on the establishment and first replenishment of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), served as Sweden's IDA Deputy for the IDA 10, 11 and 12 Replenishments and facilitated and chaired the Initial Resource Mobilization (IRM) for the Green Climate Fund.