Rojas will be working with WCA’s Australian CEO Benjamin Sporton and the rest of the team to further develop and deliver its key strategies in the lead-up to COP21, chiefly by driving forward the WCA’s global Platform for Accelerating Coal Efficiency (PACE) from concept to reality.

“Her knowledge on the issues of sustainable development and international trade will be of substantial benefit to the WCA and I strongly believe that she is an exciting addition to our team,” Sporton said of Rojas.

PACE will be a key cog in the message WCA has been pushing for much of the past year and will be front and centre of WCA’s efforts during COP21, as it states that moving the current global efficiency rate of coal-fired power plants from 33% to 40% by deploying more advanced off-the-shelf technology could cut 2 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions now.

As countries line up their emissions targets, often at the expense of coal, the WCA’s argument has mostly been taken up in Asian countries China, Korea and India.

The WCA, along with the Minerals Council of Australia, has long argued that high efficiency, low emissions coal-fired generation technologies should be deployed where technically and economically feasible, as they can achieve CO2 emission reductions of up to 20% to 25% compared with the average of the existing world coal fleet.

Such is the task ahead for Rojas, who joins the WCA after having spent most of her career as a diplomat for the Republic of Peru.

Her most recent appointment was as Minister-Counsellor at the Peruvian Permanent Mission to the UN. She comes to the WCA with extensive experience in sustainable development issues and international economic negotiations.

Most recently in her role at the UN, Milagros has had substantial involvement in the post-2015 development framework negotiations, including on the Sustainable Development Goals and financing for development issues.

Rojas also has significant experience in international trade issues both as an official at the Peruvian delegation to the World Trade Organization and as a negotiator on numerous Free Trade Agreements.

She has a degree in law from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru Law School, holds a Masters in International Law and Economics by the World Trade Institute of Switzerland, and a Masters in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of Peru.

“I am very happy to be on-board an organisation with such an ambitious strategy, particularly as we head towards COP21,” she said.

“The WCA has an important role to play in raising awareness of the importance of coal in the global energy mix and the huge potential of high efficiency low emissions coal technologies and carbon capture and storage in reducing global CO2 emissions.

“In particular, I look forward to progressing the PACE initiative, which offers the potential to reduce global CO2 emissions by 2Gt – a significant contribution to meeting our climate objectives.”