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Töpfer: ‘has much more status and experience than other candidates’.

Klaus Töpfer, Germany's minister for housing and a former environment minister, is being tipped as a leading candidate to succeed Elizabeth Dowdeswell as head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Töpfer's name has informally attracted broad international support, particularly from the United States, Scandinavia and Germany, which is keen for one of its nationals to head a UN agency. “Töpfer's got a lot more status and experience than the others in the field,” says one source at an environment ministry in a European Union member state.

Other names that have been mentioned include Michael Cutajar, head of the UN Climate Convention, and John Gummer, Britain's former environment secretary. But none of the three is likely to be supported by Canada, which sponsors Dowdeswell.

Dowdeswell's contract expires at the end of this year, and a consensus is emerging among member countries that UNEP needs a new face. “There are a lot of fundamental problems with UNEP. It needs someone with fresh ideas and vision who can invigorate the place,” the source says.

UNEP's controversial ‘turf wars’ with its constituent conventions have also damaged its image. Some conventions — such as the Biodiversity Convention (see Nature 389, 5; 1997) and the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) — favour greater autonomy for themselves, including the right to deal directly with member countries. But UNEP opposes this approach.

Some countries wanted Dowdeswell replaced last year. But she was granted a one-year extension by the then UN secretary general, Boutros Boutros Ghali, partly because no candidate had been nominated, and partly because Boutros Ghali was himself about to leave his post, and so was unable to devote time to selecting a candidate.

One reason for a relative lack of enthusiasm for the UNEP post is that it is located in Nairobi. “Had the job been in Geneva, there would have been no shortage of candidates,” says one source.

Under United Nations rules, the secretary general takes soundings from member countries before proposing a single candidate who he anticipates will attract widespread support. This name then goes forward for ratification before the general assembly in New York.