Speaker
KIM Hyoeun
Affliation
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Title
Ambassador and Deputy Minister for Climate Change
Session

Biography

Amb. Hyoeun Jenny Kim has been Ambassador and Deputy Minister for Climate Change in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea since July 2021. She is also chief negotiator of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, representing her country. Before taking the role, she was Deputy Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). GGGI is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization supporting developing countries and emerging economies to achieve economic growth and environmental sustainability together by following a new pathway of green growth. She was responsible for managing GGGI’s in-country operations in more than 35 countries, supporting low-carbon economic growth in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and UNSDGs. From 2016 to 2018, she was the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Senegal and five neighboring countries. She contributed to building a strategic relationship on development cooperation between Korea and West Africa. From 2013 to 2016, as the Director for Strategy, Policy, and Communication at the GGGI, she led the development of the GGGI Strategic Plan 2015-2020, governance structural reform, and outreach. As a career diplomat in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she served as Director for Climate Change and Environment Affairs and Director for World Trade Organization (WTO). She served as the Vice-Chair of the Trade and Environment Joint Committee of the OECD and the Chair of the Budget and Management Committee of the APEC. She earned her Bachelor’s in political science and diplomacy from Yonsei University in Seoul and her Master’s degree from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.