FORMER President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, has become a patron of the World Sustainable Development Forum.
He joins Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anna 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. The World Sustainable Development Forum draws on the advice of “distinguished patrons from government, industry and academia” – including Ms Tarja Halonen, the President of Finland; Mr Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of Norway; Mr George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management; Mr Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric Company; Lord John Browne, former Chief Executive of BP;  and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has described combating climate change as a global threat of 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 Mr. 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.
Mr Jagdeo is currently in Asia, consulting with leaders from other countries on how to have these initiatives move forward. (GINA)