Ranjula Bali Swain
Ranjula Bali Swain is Professor of Economics, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden and Visiting Professor and Research Director at Center for Sustainability Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics. Her research focusses on sustainable development, environmental economics and development.
Hans Bruyninckx
Executive Director, European Environmental Agency – EEA. Dr Hans Bruyninckx became the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency on 1 June 2013. In 1996 he completed a PhD in international environmental politics at Colorado State University and since 2010 headed the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven which specialises in policy research. Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research in more than a dozen countries, in areas including environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development.
Joji Carino
Joji Carino, Ibaloi-Igorot from the Cordillera, Philippines. She is the Senior Policy Advisor of Forest Peoples Programme, and is a lead writer, together with Maurizio Farhan Ferrari of Local Biodiversity Outlooks 2. Joji has been an active campaigner and advocate, over the past 35 years on indigenous peoples human rights, at community, national and international levels, and is a recognised leader in indigenous processes covering biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and sustainable development. She strongly supports community-based research and monitoring, also coordinating a network of Centres of Distinction on Indigenous and Local Knowledge.
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger
Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, DPhil (Oxon), MEM (Yale), BCL&LLB (McGill), BA Hons (Carl/UVic), Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge, Senior Director, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), Executive Secretary, UNFCCC CoP26 Climate Law and Governance Initiative, and Full Professor of Law, School of Environment, Entrepreneurship & Development, University of Waterloo.
Mark Elder
Director of Research and Publications at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan. He has co-authored several publications on SDGs. Realising the Transformative Potential of the SDGs; reports Assessment of the G20 Countries’ Concrete SDG Implementation Efforts, and Assessment of ASEAN Countries’ Concrete SDG Implementation Efforts; peer reviewed articles “An Optimistic Analysis of the Means of Implementation for Sustainable Development Goals: Thinking about Goals as Means” in Sustainability and “The Design of Environmental Priorities in the SDGs” in Global Policy; a policy brief on “Strengthening the Linkages between Air Pollution and the Sustainable Development Goals;” and Chapter 20 of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6).
Jane Kabubo-Mariara
Jane Kabubo-Mariara is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Economic Policy and a Professor of Economics of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She is the president of the African Society for Ecological Economics, and a member of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies Advisory Board among other roles. Jane has over 30 years’ experience in capacity building and research and has served in various corporate and scientific advisory roles globally. Her research interests include climate change impacts and adaptation, youth and women empowerment, multidimensional and child poverty. Jane has published widely in leading economics journals. She holds a PhD, Master and bachelor’s degrees in economics from the University of Nairobi.
Elizabeth M. Mrema
Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity – CBD. Ms. Mrema has worked with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) for over two decades and was the Director of the Law Division at UNEP. Prior to joining the Law Division in June 2014, she was Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, in charge of coordination, operations and programme delivery from 2012 and also served for one year as Acting Director to the same Division. In 2018, she was the Acting Director of the Corporate Services Division. Prior to these duties, she also served as Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals from 2009-2012. Ms. Mrema’s work at UNEP has focused on development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, including multilateral environmental agreements at national, regional and international levels, among others.
Hien Ngo
Biodiversity and pollination expert at the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO – Food and Agricultural Organisation/United Nations Hien Ngo joined FAO in 2020. From 2014 until recently, Hien worked at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as the head of the technical support unit for both the IPBES pollination assessment and subsequently the IPBES global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Hien has previous experience at the FAO as a consultant from 2012 – 2014. Hien has a background in biology with undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and a master’s degree at York University (Canada) looking at bee diversity in coffee agroecosystems in Costa Rica. Thereafter, she continued her work in Southeast Asia, both in Vietnam and the Philippines. Hien has co-authored approximately 35 peer-reviewed publications, technical reports and book chapters.
Åsa Persson
Åsa Persson is Research Director and Deputy Director at the Stockholm Environment Institute, and Adjunct Lecturer at Department for Thematic Studies, Linköping University. Her recent research focuses on global governance, including the implementation of the SDGs, the climate change adaptation, and the planetary boundaries framework. In the SDG context, she is particularly focusing on policy coherence and inequality. In 2020, she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to the Independent Group of Scientists to prepare the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report. She is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Earth System Governance Project. She received her PhD degree in environmental policy from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2007.
Marcos Regis da Silva
Executive Director Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). Marcos REGIS DA SILVA holds the position of Executive Director with the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). In this capacity, he is responsible for the strategic direction of the IAI, implementation of its strategic plan and scientific agenda and leadership regarding the role of the IAI in the current environmental governance discussions. Prior to joining the IAI, he held several executive and managing positions within the system of UN conventions (CITES, CBD) and NAFTA. He holds a PhD from McGill University where he was an Adjunct Professor for many years.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. Sachs has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. He is an expert on public health and epidemics and has advised the World Health Organization at the highest levels during the past 20 years. Sachs was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists.
Richard Welford
Professor Richard Welford is Senior Advisor to the ELEVATE group of companies, a global sustainability consultancy based on Hong Kong and Chairman of CSR Asia. He is working with Asian blue chip companies on their sustainability strategies. Richard is a visiting professor at the Sasin School of Management, Bangkok and the University of Technology, Sydney. He is the author of thirteen books and over 100 articles linked to corporate sustainability. He is the editor of four journals linked to sustainable development and is a past President of the International Sustainable Development Research Society. He sits on the Board of five companies and NGOs.