When Ibrahima Cheikh Diong took the helm of a new United Nations fund to help vulnerable nations cope with the worst effects of climate change last year, the institution existed mostly on paper.
Within weeks of his appointment, Diong was on a plane to the Philippines, where the fund’s board is based, for his first board meeting — then to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“I was two weeks on,” recalled Diong, the former head of the African Union’s climate insurance agency, Africa Risk Capacity. “No staff, just by myself. I came to COP29 in Baku and realized right away that the expectations were so high.”