High Level Advisory Board
Izabella was Brazil´s Minister of the Environment from 2010 – 2016. A career public servant, Izabella has held a position at the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources since 1984.
In 2015, Mrs Teixeira was Head of the Brazilian Delegation on negotiations of the Paris Agreement of the UN Convention on Climate Change. Mrs Teixeira’s guidance and leadership was instrumental in the approval of the new Forest Code in the National Congress in 2012. In 2013, Izabella received the UNEP Champions of the Earth award for Policy Leadership.
Izabella Teixeira
Dr. Jian Liu is currently the Director of the Science Division, UN Environment Programme. Jian Liu has over 30 years of professional experience in science and policy, in the specific domains of ecosystems management, agriculture, environment and climate change at national, regional and global levels, in particular in developing countries.
He was the Director of UNEP’s International Ecosystem Management Partnership, the first global centre on ecosystem management in the global south, which he established, as the founding director.
Jian Liu
Professor Ivanova focuses on international environmental institutions, environmental sustainability, and the science-policy interface.
The author of The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty (MIT Press 2021), she has published on global environmental governance, the United Nations Environment Programme, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals, among others.
Maria Ivanova
Janez has held many important positions related to environment, economics and European Affairs becoming a Member of the European Commission responsible for environmental and scientific research for several years.
In 2014 he was appointed as a Chairman of The Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Member of the European Policy Centre’s Advisory Council and recently in 2020 became president of ThinkForest. In 2013, he received the United Nation’s Champions of the Earth Award.
Janez Potočnik
Mohamed leads the Gulf Research Center, (Jeddah, Geneva and Cambridge), research program on Sustainability and Environmental Issues. He is also a non-resident environmental researcher working with many think tanks in the MENA and Europe regions.
Mohamed was the lead author for UNEP’s fifth and sixth Global Environment Outlook, West Asia chapter on Environmental Governance section. He has published various policy papers on environmental issues in the MENA region and authored five books.