Ban Ki-moon (Deputy Chair of The Elders)
Ban Ki-moon was the UN Secretary-General from 2007-2016. He mobilised world leaders around a new set of challenges and sought to give voice to the world’s poorest and vulnerable people. He put Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, and equality for girls and women at the top of the UN agenda; creating UN Women and securing the Paris Agreement. He is a former South-Korean Foreign Minister and diplomat. He is the Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute, Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, and Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

Dr. Yasmine Fouad was appointed Minister of Environment of the Arabic Republic of Egypt on 18 June 2018. She was previously Assistant Minister of Environment since 2014.holds MSc in Environmental Science and PhD in Political Science – Euro Mediterranean Studies. She has more than 20 years’ experience in Environment and International cooperation, working in Government, UN organizations, NGOs and Universities.

LI Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), has had an extensive career as a senior economic and financial policy-maker. As Vice-Minister of Finance of the People’s Republic of China and member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank for a decade, Mr. Li was involved in setting and harmonizing fiscal, monetary and industrial policies, and in supporting sound economic growth in China. He pushed forward financial sector reform, and prompted major financial institutions to establish corporate governance, deal with toxic assets and strengthen risk management. Mr. Li gave great importance to fiscal and financial measures in favor of agricultural development and SMEs, the cornerstones for creating economic opportunities, reducing poverty and promoting gender equality. He played a key role in China’s cooperation with multilateral development organizations, such as the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank.

Lawyer by profession, politician by choice, and conservationist at heart, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez was elected as CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility by its governing body, the GEF Council, in June 2020.

The former Costa Rican Environment and Energy Minister was a pioneer in the development of Payment for Ecosystem Services initiatives and strategies for forest restoration, ocean conservation, and de-carbonization, and is an internationally recognized expert on environmental policy, multilateral environmental negotiations, and financing for nature conservation. During his three terms as Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica doubled the size of its forests, made its electric sector 100 percent clean and renewable, and consolidated a National Park System that has positioned the Central American country as a prime ecotourism destination.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Environment and Climate of Sweden Ms. Isabella Lövin has served as Minister for International Development as well as a Member of the European Parliament. Together with the Indian Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Minister Lövin heads the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT). The group gathers countries and companies that are committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions from industry by 2050.

Claire O’Neill entered politics in 2007 after a transatlantic career in consulting and finance, initially as a policy advisor to George Osborne, the then Shadow Chancellor and then as the Conservative MP for the Devizes Constituency from 2010 – 2019.

She served in several Ministerial positions before becoming Climate Change Minister and then attending the UK Cabinet as Minister for Energy and Clean Growth. Claire wrote and implemented the UK’s Clean Growth Strategy; formed the Green Finance Taskforce; launched the global Powering Past Coal Alliance to end coal-powered electricity generation and negotiated the UK’s Offshore Wind Sector Deal that dramatically dropped the cost of this vital renewable energy source. In 2019 she brought forward the ground-breaking legislation that committed the UK to be a Net Zero emissions economy by 2050 and she also formulated the UK’s successful bid to host the United Nations 2020 Climate Change Conference known as COP26. She served as COP26 President-Designate until she left politics in 2020.

Ranked as one of Bloomberg’s global “Green 30 for 2020”, Claire has now joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as the Managing Director for Climate and Energy,  and Natural Climate Solutions. WBCSD is the leading voice for business sustainability and is a global CEO-led organization drawn from all business sectors and all major economies, representing a combined revenue of more than USD $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees.