PARIS: Australian former finance minister Mathias Cormann was elected Friday as the new head of the influential Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, sources close to the OECD told AFP, in a choice likely to dismay environmental groups.
The 50-year-old Belgian-born politician was chosen "by a slim majority" during a meeting of ambassadors of the 37-nation OECD, which acts as a think-tank and club of mostly rich, democratic countries.
Cormann served as Australia's finance minister for seven years until late 2020, a record for the country, having been first named to the job by right-wing climate change sceptic Tony Abbott in 2013.
He has criss-crossed Europe in the last two months, where most of the OECD's members are located, promoting his candidacy and promising an agenda of "inclusive and sustainable economic growth."
Earlier this month, more than two dozen global civil society leaders wrote to the OECD's selection chair to draw attention to Cormann's record on climate change in government.
The joint letter said this "should preclude him from being selected as the OECD's new Secretary-General", while Greenpeace International said Cormann had a "terrible record" when it came to the climate.
But he has defended his efforts and promised to work on the issue at the OECD, telling AFP earlier this month that "action on climate change to be effective, requires an ambitious, globally coordinated approach".
Cormann, who emigrated from German-speaking Belgium to Australia in his mid-20s, emerged as a surprise frontrunner and beat out fellow top contender, Sweden's Cecilia Malmstrom, a former EU trade commissioner.
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