UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the 53-year-old Costa Rican, currently San Jose's climate change negotiator, would succeed Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

"Ms Figueres is an international leader on strategies to address global climate change and brings to this position a passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders, and valuable hands-on experience from the non-profit sector and the private sector," the spokesman said.

De Boer tendered his resignation after last year's Copenhagen climate change talks, which ended in widespread disappointment with only vague promises by nations to cut emissions.

Figueres is to assume her post on July 1, five months before the next round of scheduled climate change talks in the Mexican resort city of Cancun.

She has been a negotiator of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol since 1995 and has played a role in designing key climate change instruments, US media reports said.

Chief US climate negotiator Todd Stern welcomed Figueres' appointment, calling her "well-qualified with a deep background in UN climate change negotiations."

"The United States looks forward to working with Ms. Figueres and partners around the world to build on the progress made in Copenhagen to meet the climate change challenge," Stern said in a statement.

Environmental group Greenpeace noted that Costa Rica has set an ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2021, "the type of attitude we need on the global stage."

"We hope she can really engage all countries in a fast-moving dialogue to get agreement on a global deal that will save the world from dangerous climate change," said Wendel Trio, Greenpeace's climate policy coordinator.

Figueres's family has a long history of work in government and international affairs. Her father Jose Figueres Ferrer was a three-time president of Costa Rica who abolished Costa Rica's military in 1948.

Her mother Karen Olsen Beck who was born in the United States to Danish immigrants, later adopted Costa Rican nationality.

Figueres's older brother, Jose Maria Figueres Olsen was elected President of Costa Rica for four years at the age of 39, the nation's youngest president in the 20th century.

Figueres completed her university studies at the prestigious Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and at the London School of Economics and Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

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