Ms. Ligia Noronha joined the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in April 2014 as Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE). On 1 April 2021, she took up her current role as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the UNEP New York Office.
An economist with over 30 years of international experience in the field of sustainable development, Ms. Noronha has led work in UNEP on climate mitigation and just energy transitions; circularity and sustainable consumption and production; extractives and responsible mining; and the nexus of environment, pollution and health. Through her leadership of the New York Office, she seeks to raise awareness of environmental issues, the outcomes of the United Nations Environment Assembly and the interconnections between a healthy planet and collective well-being in intergovernmental processes, the wider UN System and inter-agency mechanisms.
Before joining UNEP, Ms. Noronha was Executive Director (Research Coordination) at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Director of the Resources, Regulation and Global Security Division. She was Secretary of the Asian Energy Institute – a network of Asian and non-Asian institutes (2005-2011); Coordinator, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnerships (REEEP) South Asia (2005-2009); and Michael Hintze Energy Security Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Security Studies (CISS), University of Sydney, Australia (2009-11). In 2004-2005, she was Team Leader, Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health, at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.
Ms. Noronha has served on the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India, and on several expert committees and panels of the Government of India and the Government of Goa. She has published nationally and internationally on issues relating to energy and resource security, climate change, environmental and coastal policy, sustainable consumption and production, responsible mining, and natural resource federalism.
Ms. Noronha holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Mumbai, as well as a Master’s degree in Sea Use Law, Economics and Policy and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.
