With deep sorrow the Climate Change Secretariat announced the passing of Ms. Joke Waller-Hunter, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, on 14 October 2005 in Bonn, Germany.

From 1 May 2002, Joke assumed the leadership of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as its Executive Secretary.  She devoted all her international experience, energy and talent to promoting the implementation of the Convention, to working for the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and its implementation, and to developing and strengthening the secretariat for these purposes.