Mary Awad Menassa joined Independent Diplomat in July 2024 as a Climate Advisor, after a decade of working on climate at the national, regional and international levels. 

Mary previously held the position of Senior Climate Action Specialist at the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Center for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, focusing on enhancing regional ambition and facilitating climate action implementation, specifically through NDCs and long-term strategies. She was also involved in the UNFCCC’s work on high-level ministerial engagements on mitigation. 

Mary has been actively engaged in climate diplomacy and negotiations as she represented Lebanon at the UNFCCC negotiations, contributed to global guidance on mitigation and transparency and co-led coalitions of countries negotiating the Paris Agreement rulebook. 

As part of the UNDP Climate Change Projects in Lebanon, Mary was part of the team which led national climate implementation, inter-ministerial coordination, and climate finance for 8 years. She led on the preparation and submission of Lebanon’s Nationally Determined Contribution and designed national institutional structures for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. 

She also speaks Arabic and French.