Minister Izabella Teixeira is a career employee of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), which she joined in 1984 as an Environmental Analyst. Over her 28 years as a civil servant she has held several high-level management and advisory positions in the federal area. She took office as Minister of the Environment in 2010.
As a result of her notable performance representing the Brazilian Government at the UN Climate Conference in Cancun and the UN Biodiversity Conference in Nagoya, she was invited by the UN Secretary-General to join, in 2010 and 2012, the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, composed of authorities of another 12 countries. On 24 September 2012, Minister Teixeira was nominated again by the UN Secretary-General to join the High Level Panel on Post-2015 Development, which will propose the new post-2015 development agenda to the UN General Assembly.
Minister Teixeira is continuously recognized as a bold and visionary leader who played a key role in the challenging feat of reversing the deforestation in the Amazon forest, as proven by the achievement of an 84 per cent reduction in deforestation over the last eight years. From an annual loss of 27,772 sq km in 2004 to 4,571 sq km in 2012, this remarkable feat is a tribute to her courage to push against the tide of destruction and is a significant initiative from Brazil on climate change mitigation. Apart from the prevention and control of deforestation, the land use planning policies implemented by her resulted in 250,000 sq km of conservation areas or the equivalent of 75 per cent of the global forest protected areas.
Her long-standing career in the service of the environment was positively marked by the successful hosting by Brazil of the Rio+20 (UN Conference on Sustainable Development) and the 2012 World Environment Day.
Jack Dangermond is an American business executive and environmental scientist. In 1969, he and his wife Laura founded the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), a privately held Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software company.
A landscape architect by training, Dangermond founded ESRI with the vision that a mapping and analysis framework could provide a deeper understanding of our world and help us design a better future. He is dedicated to creating innovative GIS technology that enables people to make insightful decisions and improve the quality of life everywhere. His commitment is to ensure that research, education, and nonprofit organizations working in the fields of conservation and development have access to the best geo-spatial, analytical and visualization technology. ESRI has donated hundreds of millions of dollars in technology and expertise to these institutions. Dangermond and ESRI have transformed the world by developing technology that allows decision makers to manage our planet with increased understanding of the relationship between socio-economic, environmental, and economic information – for actionable change.
Headquartered in Redlands, California, ESRI company has an installed base of more than one million users in more than 350,000 organizations, including most US federal agencies and national mapping agencies, all 50 US state health departments, transportation agencies, forestry companies, utilities, state and local government, schools and universities, NGOs, and commercial business. Sources estimate that about 70 per cent of the current GIS users make use of ESRI products.
The company hosts an annual International User's Conference, which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees. An estimated 15,000 users from 131 countries attended in 2012. In 1989, the ESRI Conservation Program was started to help change the way non-profit organizations carried out nature conservation and social change missions. This program provides GIS software, data, and training, as well as helping to coordinate multi-organizational efforts.
President Tsakhia Elbegdorj of Mongolia, who was among the leaders of the peaceful democratic revolution that ended communist rule in 1990, has realized his commitment to putting a green agenda at the forefront of policies since coming to power in 2009.
Elbegdorj has turned his attention to decreasing air pollution, triggered by over-population and coal usage, in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, through the submission of the Law on Decreasing the Capital City Air Pollution, which was approved by Parliament. In addition, the Mongolian government is establishing a satellite-city near Ulaanbaatar for the purposes of limiting coal-burning in the capital, transferring energy-saving technology, importing and increasing the use of thermal stoves, promoting population decentralization and imposing air-pollution tax in some regions of Ulaanbaatar.
In 2010, Elbegdorj suspended the issuance of all new mining licenses until fresh regulations were drawn up, citing the protection of the mineral-rich Asian country's environment and herdsmen's livelihoods. "Half of the territory is covered by exploration licenses. I think that's enough. We have to save our wealth (for) our next generation." he said in an interview in on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly.
He has enhanced youth understanding of environmental protection through a project that educates young Mongolian students on the impacts of climate change and the importance of environmental stewardship. In an effort to combat desertification, Elbegdorj declared the second Saturday of May and October “National Tree Planting Day” and appealed to individuals, communities and the private sector to make tree-planting a habit. Since 2011, over two million trees have been planted across Mongolia’s vast desert regions.
Elbegdorj is also exploring ways to utilize solar power, especially in the sparsely populated Gobi region. According to the Mongolian Institute for Sustainable Economic Development, 70 per cent of the country has been classified as having high insolation (Incoming Solar Radiation) of 5.5-6.0 kWh/m2 per day, creating huge potential for solar power generation.
Since July 2011, Elbegdorj has been chairing the Community of Democracies, a grouping of countries that works to strengthen democratic norms and practices worldwide. In 2009, he was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change and has lectured on environmental protection abroad.
President Calderon has been a strong voice for the environment on the world stage since his election in 2006.
He has been praised for his stewardship of international climate change negotiations – most recently as host of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, last year. The Cancun talks resulted in several new initiatives and institutions, including the strengthening of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanisms and the creation of a Green Climate Fund, which will manage long-term finance mobilized to enable developing countries to address climate change.
“Confidence is back”, announced Calderon at the 3am conclusion of the climate talks, symbolising what was widely hailed as a significant step forward in climate negotiations after the disappointment of the Copenhagen conference in 2009.
Closer to home, President Calderon has made clear his ambition to make Mexico a world leader on climate action.
Under its Special Climate Change Program, Mexico will replace nearly 2 million refrigerators and air conditioners, and more than 47 million incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps or other more efficient lighting technologies, by 2012.
Mexico made the unilateral commitment through its Special Climate Change Program (PECC) to reduce 51 million tons of CO2 by 2012 - the equivalent of all the GHG emissions generated by all the vehicles that circulate in Mexico City in four and a half years.
Mexico has also been a strong advocate of using forest resources to mitigate climate change. At present, the conservation of 2.4 million hectares of forest ecosystems incorporated in the Payment for Environmental Services Program, is guaranteed. The Special Climate Change Program mitigation goal of incorporating 1.5 million hectares to the Payment for Environmental Services program and thus preventing the release of 2.2 million tons of CO2 or its equivalent into the atmosphere, has already been achieved.
Reforestation programmes in the country are set to add another three million hectares by 2012.
"If we can find a formula that allows us to simultaneously fight climate change and poverty, we will have cleared the path to be followed by humankind”, said President Calderon at the Champions of the Earth ceremony in New York. “That route exists and we must explore it together."
Providing a green twist on Jules Vernes’ famous voyage, adventurer Louis Palmer successfully led a fleet of electric vehicles around the world last year. The “Zero Race” teams crossed the globe in eighty days, highlighting two of the major environmental challenges facing the world today- the need for more sustainable transport and cleaner energy supplies.
Teams from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and South Korea took part in the race, which followed a course across four continents, before ending at the United Nations in Geneva last January. With their sleek, modern design and high performance, the Zero Race vehicles embody the major advancements currently underway in the transport sector and how investment in green technology is a key component in tackling climate change.
The Zero Race is only the latest chapter in Palmer’s adventurous career. In 2004, with the help of four Swiss universities, he built the ‘Solartaxi’ and became the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a solar-powered vehicle. Traveling through 38 countries, Palmer reached an audience of millions with his solar showcase for efficient, sustainable transportation.
Palmer’s work continues to deliver a simple, powerful environmental message across the world: that modern solutions to global warming are available, affordable and ready.
“I feel absolutely great to be recognized as a UNEP Champion of the Earth”, said Louis Palmer. “So many people helped me and along the way and we all feel honored that we get this recognition. This change to renewable energies has to happen and really it motivates not only me but my whole team.”
After earning a degree in engineering, a doctorate in Earth Science and a professorship at Queens College and Columbia University, Dr. Taro Takahashi is now a Senior Scholar at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
Dr. Takahashi has devoted five decades of his life to discovering how carbon cycles through oceans, land and atmosphere, and his work is the foundation upon which all carbon-cycle research is now built.
Dr. Takahashi found that the majority of global CO2 resided in the ocean. He also made many important observations of oceanic absorption and its variation depending on water temperature and seasons. Dr. Takahashi explains that his main research “is aimed at understanding the fate of industrial CO2 released in the air” and hopes that his study “will lead to a better understanding and hence to a reliable prediction of the oceans’ capacity to absorb industrial CO2”. The idea is to estimate the extent of the capacity of the oceans as a climate regulator.
With financial support from the Ford Company, which recognized him with the Ford Award in 2004, he has been studying how climate change may alter interactions between land and oceans, as well as the solutions for mitigating these alterations.
“He initiated the methods we all use,” said Richard Feely, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who studies El Niño and carbon cycling. “Just about everyone who has worked with him has benefited from his wisdom and advice.”
Zhou Xun, one of China’s most popular actresses, spends much of her time promoting ‘tips for green living’ through Our Part, a campaign she runs jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The actress encourages people to reduce their carbon footprint through simple changes in lifestyle, something that can make a huge difference in a country the size of China.
Zhou Xun points out that if every car-owning family in China drove just 200 km less in a year, carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 460,000 tons. She also states that small efforts like unplugging appliances can make a huge impact in China, a country with 300 million TV sets and 500 million mobile phones.
She works on reducing her own carbon footprint and follows her tips in her own day-to-day life. She takes her own chopsticks, mugs and shopping bags with her wherever she goes and tries to convince others to use reusable products. She plants three trees for every 200 km of her car travel and is planting many more to offset her flights from 2008. And when it’s feasible, she bikes or walks to her destinations.
Zhou Xun was named a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for China in 2008 with a special focus of promoting environmental sustainability and will be the Green Ambassador for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
Small Island Developing States are on the frontline of the war against climate change, both in terms of suffering the greatest damage and calling most stridently for action. Palau, a low-lying archipelago in the Pacific Ocean home to just over 20,000 souls, is one such country. The small islands that make up Palau are breath-taking in their beauty—splodges of bright green and gold in azure waters teeming with life. Yet these natural wonders are threatened by coral bleaching, rising sea levels and drought—and according to H.E. Tommy Remengesau, Jr, Palau’s experience serves as the canary in the mineshaft to the rest of the world faced with growing climate change.
While raising his voice in warning, President Remengesau, one of Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment, is also fighting to ensure his nation survives these threats through national initiatives that protect biodiversity and the ecotourism and diving industries—which together bring tens of thousands of tourists to the tiny islands each year. As President Remengesau has said on many occasions, “The economy is our environment and the environment is our economy.”
Under his presidency, Palau sought to make this environmental economy robust enough to withstand the coming changes. He established a Protected Area Network for the country’s marine biodiversity, which has generated U$1.3 million a year in green fees for community conservation since 2009. Thanks to this commitment to marine conservation, Palau has also become the world’s first shark sanctuary—leading the way for many other countries, including the Maldives, Honduras, and Marshall Islands to designate areas of their surrounding waters as shark sanctuaries.
President from 2001 to 2009, and elected again in 2013, his inspirational leadership has extended well beyond Micronesia to influence the global governance of oceans. Along with President James Michel of Seychelles, President Remengesau established the Global Island Partnership, which provides leadership and support to dozens of island states, and has mobilized more than $130 million for conservation and livelihoods on islands.
Palau may be small, but with President Remengesau at the helm, it has a big voice.
Dr. Atiq Rahman is an eloquent advocate for sustainable development from Bangladesh- a country highly vulnerable to climate change and flooding. As one of the top specialists in his field, the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) transformed the NGO into a leading think-tank in South Asia on sustainable development issues.
Dr. Rahman's extensive publications on the subjects of environment and development in Bangladesh are a reference for his peers, and he has also developed an innovative post-graduate course on sustainable development and North-South dialogue.
With his national and international experience in environment and resource management, Dr. Rahman's expertise remains vital throughout the Asia Pacific region and beyond as he helps to raise awareness of the hazards of global warming.
For the last thirty years, Timothy E. Wirth has been an advocate for environmental issues in the United States. As the president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund, Mr. Wirt has established the environment as a key priority and is mobilizing strong resources to address crucial issues from biodiversity to climate change and renewable energy.
A strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, Mr. Wirth was instrumental in raising awareness and calling for policy action on global warming during his time as US Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs.
Mr. Wirth was also a steadfast advocate on environmental issues during his time as a member of the US Senate, when he engaged in a number of conservation and natural resource issues in his state of Colorado. Mr. Wirth authored the Colorado Wilderness Bill as well as other successful legislation on energy, conservation and environmental protection.
