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Members of the Commission

Commission Documents

Members of the Commission

Commission for a Sustainable World Society

THE MEMBERS of the Commission

RICARDO LAGOS (CO-CHAIR)

President of the Republic of Chile (2000- 2006). Lagos played a fundamental role in the fight for the restoration of democracy in Chile in the 1980s. He was Minister of Education (1990-1994) in the first government of the Concertación of Parties for Democracy. In the second, he held the post of Minister of Public Works (1994-1998). In 2000, Lagos was elected President of the Republic, standing for the Concertación. In May 2007, Lagos was appointed a Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on Climate Change.

GORAN PERSSON (CO-CHAIR)

Prime Minister of Sweden (1996-2006) and Chair of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden (1996-2007). In 1979, he was elected Member of Parliament. He then spent five years as a Municipal Commissioner and returned to central government in 1989, holding various ministerial posts, including Education and Science; Education and Vocational Training ; and, Finance. Elected Prime Minister in 1996, he was re-elected in 1998 and 2002. Persson has been recognised for his political leadership in the field of climate policy during his tenure.

	HILARY BENN Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom, since June 2007. Benn entered local politics at the age of 25 in 1979, where he served for 20 years. In 1999, he was elected as Member of Parliament. In 2001, he was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Community and Custodial provision at the Home Office (2002-2003). In May 2003 he was appointed as Minister of State for International Development and in October that year was made Secretary of State for International Development.
	CAROL M. BROWNER Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton. Leading the EPA from 1993 to 2001, she was the longest-serving Administrator in the agency’s history. Browner currently serves on the board of several non-profit organisations, including as chair of the National Audubon Society, one of the nation’s oldest environmental organisations, and as a member of the Board of the Directors of the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation Voters.
	ELIO DI RUPO Leader of the Socialist Party, PS, Belgium, and Minister of State. A scientific researcher before entering politics, Di Rupo has been elected to the European parliament and to both chambers of the Belgian parliament. He has held several ministerial posts: Minister-President of the Wallonia; Minister of Education; Federal Minister of Transport; Deputy Federal Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy. He is also Mayor of the city of Mons and is a Course Lecturer at the University of Mons-Hainaut.
	MOHAMED EL YAZGHI Minister of State, Morrocco. Leader of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP (2003-2007). One of the founding members of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, El Yazghi has been a key figure in the struggle for democracy in Morocco. Currently a Minister of State, he was Minister of Country Planning, Town Planning, Housing and the Environment (1998-2002) and then, from 2002 to 2007, Minister of Country Planning, Water and the Environment.
	SIGMAR GABRIEL Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany (2005- ) Elected in 1990 to the Lower Saxony Landtag (federal state parliament), Gabriel was a member of its environment committee (1990-1994). From 1994 to 1997, he was spokesman for domestic policy in the Social Democratic Party, SPD, parliamentary group in the Landtag, which he then chaired (1998-1999 and 2003-2005). From 1999 to 2003, Gabriel was Minister-President of Lower Saxony. He was elected to the federal parliament in 2005.
	ALEKSANDR KWASNIEWSKI President of the Republic of Poland (1995-2005). He participated in the ‘Round-Table’ negotiations in Poland which brought the peaceful transformation of Poland from communism to democracy. A co-founding member and first chairman of the Social Democratic Party of the Republic of Poland. It was under his presidency that Poland joined NATO in 1999. He is an active supporter of further alliance enlargement under the "open door" policy. A strong proponent of European integration, Kwasniewski campaigned for approval of the European Union accession treaty, and saw Poland become a member on May 1, 2004.
	SERGEI MIRONOV Chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation since 2001 and, in October 2006, elected Chair of the Justice Party of Russia. Mironov was elected a deputyof Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg in 1994. In 2001, he was elected a memberof the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation as a St.Petersburg representative. In 2002 he was elected a Chairman of Council of Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the CIS. Prior to political life, Mironov worked as an engineer-geophysicist.
	CRISTINA NARBONA Minister of the Environment of Spain (2004-2008) From 1996-1999, Narbona represented Almería in the state legislature and was spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the parliamentary Environment Commission. Serving in the Madrid city council from 1999 to 2003, Narbona was then elected in the 2004 polls as a member of parliament for the capital. Previously, in 2000, she was elected as a member of the Executive of Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and appointed PSOE Secretary for the Environment.
	BEATRIZ PAREDES President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, of Mexico, since March 2007. Paredes was Governor of the State of Tlaxcala from 1987 to 1992, and she has also served in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, and was Speaker of the parliament. In government, Paredes worked as Sub-Secretary for Political and Government Development; and also in the Department for Agrarian Reform. She has also carried out various international responsibilities, among them, Ambassador of Mexico in Cuba and President of the Latin American Parliament.
	ANAND SHARMA Minister of State for External Affairs of India (2006-) A prominent leader of the student and youth movement in India, Sharma was a founder of the student wing of the Indian National Congress. He worked closely with late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and was first elected to Parliament in 1984 at the age of 31. Sharma was Chief Spokesman of the party for six years. He was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers with responsibility for Foreign Affairs in January 2006.
	MARINA SILVA Minister of the Environment of the Federative Republic of Brazil (2003-2008). Born in the Breu Velho settlement in the Bagaço rubber field, Silva was a founder of CUT (Workers' Central Union) in Acre. She entered local politics in 1988, winning the only left-wing seat in the City Council. In 1990 she was elected to the State Congress. In 1994 Silva, of the Workers' Party, PT, was elected a Senator, and sat on the Commissions for Social Affairs; for Education; and for Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (1999-2002), and was alternate Member of the Commission for Economic Affairs (1999-2001).
	MARTIN TORRIJOS President of the Republic of Panama (2004-) and leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, PRD (1999- ) During the presidency of Ernesto Pérez Balladares (1994–1999), Torrijos served as Deputy Minister of Government and Justice, carrying out reforms related to national security, civil aerial navigation, public transportation, tele-communications and modernisation of the national penitentiary system. He was recognised for his work in the latter area by the United Nations.
	NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of South Africa (1999- ) A lifelong activist of the African National Congress, ANC, Dlamini Zuma returned to South Africa in 1990. In 1994, she was appointed as the Minister of Health. During her tenure as Foreign Minister, she has been elected President of the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR); Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Ministers’ Council; and, President of the Ministers’ Council for the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, at which she also led the negotiations on behalf of the President.