Former President Bharrat Jagdeo has become a patron of the World Sustainable Development Forum. He joins former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan and 12 other world leaders to support the New Delhi-based institution’s work to influence global progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and advancing sustainable development.
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo
The World Sustainable Development Forum draws on the advice of “distinguished patrons from government, industry and academia”. The patrons include Finland President Tarja Halonen; Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg; Soros Fund Management Chairman George Soros; General Electric Company Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt; former Chief Executive of BP Lord John Browne; Earth Institute Director and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has described combating climate change as a global threat of a similar order to addressing violent conflict and poverty, while former President Jagdeo has described sustainable development as an area where “today’s developing countries can lead the rest of the world”.
Jagdeo has taken on several global roles relating to the promotion of green growth and sustainable development.
Last week, the world’s largest and oldest environmental organisation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that Jagdeo would become the IUCN high level envoy for sustainable development in forest countries, and an IUCN Patron of Nature.
In 2011, heads of state and other leaders from the world’s rainforest countries asked him to be “Roving Ambassador for the Three Basins”. He is also a board member of the Korea-based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). Time Magazine described him as a “Hero of the Environment” in 2008, while he was awarded the United Nations “Champion of the Earth” award in 2010, and served on the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Climate Finance in the same year. Jagdeo is currently in Asia, consulting with leaders from other countries on how to progress these initiatives.
