Coordinator, Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection

Director, UNFCCC

Executive Director, The World in 2050 (TWI2050)

Nebojsa Nakicenovic is Deputy Director General and Deputy CEO, IIASA, and former tenured Professor of Energy Economics, TU Wien.

He is a Member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts; recipient of the Austrian Grand Decoration in Silver (Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst); recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for the IPCC with several authors; and of the 2005 Sheikh Zayed Environmental Award for Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) also with several authors.

Among other positions, he is Executive Director of The World in 2050; Convening Lead Author of UNEP Gap Report; member of scientific advisory boards including UN Technical Group on Sustainable Development Goal 7; Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Renewable Energy for the 21st Century; and WIFO; and serves on the editorial boards of eight scientific journals.

Previous positions include the Director of the Global Energy Assessment, UN Secretary General (SG) Special Advisory 10-Member Group on Science, Technology and Innovation; UN SG Advisory Group on Energy and Climate; Convening Lead Author of IPCC; Co-Leader of the Austrian Climate Change Assessment, Co-Chair of the Global Carbon Project, Chair of the OMV Future Energy Fund Advisory Board, Advisory Council of the German Government on Global Change (WBGU).

Executive Director, International Energy Cooperation Office, Ministry of Energy, Thailand

Special Envoy for Science in Global Policy, International Science Council

Chad, Co-Chair, International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, SDG Advocate

As an indigenous woman from Mbororo pastoralist community of Chad, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, has been an advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples and the protection of the environment for over 15 years. She is leading a community-based organisation in Chad, AFPAT, which is active in most international Sustainable Development Goal areas, including climate change and biodiversity, health, and education. She led several projects that improved indigenous peoples’ access to basic needs, while promoting their unique contribution to the protection of the environment. 3D participatory mapping, for instance, helps to prevent resources-based conflicts in one of the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the world.

Hindou has also participated for over a decade in high-level international policy discussions advocating for environmental protection for indigenous peoples through the Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification Conventions. She co-chaired the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) and was a coordinator of the world indigenous peoples’ initiative and pavilion for COP21, COP22 and COP23. In 2016, she was selected to be the speaker representing civil society at the 2016 signing ceremony of the historic Paris Agreement.

Hindou is an expert on adaptation of indigenous peoples to and mitigation of climate change, traditional knowledge on the adaptation of pastoralists in Africa, and indigenous women’s empowerment. She is very active in various forums and networks to advocate for the cause of indigenous peoples. In 2016, she was recognized as a National Geographic Explorer, and since 2018 she has served as Senior Indigenous Fellow for Conservation International.

Quote: "For centuries, indigenous peoples have protected the environment, which provides them food, medicine and so much more. Now it's time to protect their unique traditional knowledge that can bring concrete solution to implement sustainable development goals and fight climate change."