Alicia Bárcena Ibarra

Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources de México

Alicia Barcena Ibarra served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from June 2023 to September 2024. Prior to that, she was Mexico’s ambassador to Chile.

From 2008 to 2022, she was the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She has also served as Deputy Executive Secretary and Director of the Environment and Human Settlements Division at ECLAC.

At the United Nations (UN), she held the roles of Deputy Secretary-General for Management, Chief of Staff, and Deputy Chief of Staff to then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Additionally, she was the Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Coordinator of the Environmental Citizenship Project at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

In 1982, she was the first Undersecretary of Ecology of Mexico, in the then-Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology. She also served as Director General of the National Fisheries Institute in 1988.

She is a biologist with a master’s degree in Ecology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. She has authored more than 50 publications in various international media and academic journals.