"Yvo de Boer, it could be argued, holds the fate of the planet in his hands.

The United Nation's climate majordomo -- tasked with herding 192 nations toward a do-or-die deal by year's end -- does not have the power to impose an agreement on how to curb greenhouse gases and cope with its consequences.

But if he fails in his role as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it just might muck the whole thing up.

This week, de Boer is in Bonn, Germany coaxing the troubled and hugely complex talks along ahead of the December deadline for a new treaty. "

AFP ran the profile June 7, 2009. [2]