UN climate specialist

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

You work as a policy and programme officer in the UNFCCC, UNDP and GCF system, not as a field scientist. You draft decision text and background notes, track Nationally Determined Contributions in the NDC Registry, check greenhouse-gas inventory tables prepared with the IPCC Inventory Software, appraise GCF funding proposals against the investment framework and results areas, write results frameworks and progress reports, organise delegation meetings and intersessional workshops, and reply to submissions from Parties.

Tools are the NDC Registry, the IPCC Inventory Software, Microsoft Excel, R for emissions tables, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, the GCF Integrated Portfolio Management System, plus ATLAS and Quantum for UNDP country work. Headquarters time is 40 hours per week in Bonn, Geneva and Songdo. During the 2 week Conference of the Parties and the 2 week Bonn intersessional, 60 hour to 70 hour weeks with night sessions and weekend cover are normal, with junior staff compiling contact-group notes at night. Travel is 4 to 8 missions per year of 5 to 10 days each. There is no permanent shift roster, but on-call cover during negotiations is expected. Speaking in the plenary hall is about 10% to 15% of the year, drafting, tables, emails and coordination are about 85% to 90%.

Where does this lead?