Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2021

Professor John Agard, Ph.D. is Director of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago. He has also been appointed by the UN Secretary General as Co-Chair of the United Nations Global Sustainability Development Report to be drafted by 15 independent scientist and published in 2023. His research interest is in the field of sustainability science especially as it relates to mainstreaming environmental considerations such biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation, along with climate change mitigation and adaptation, and blue and circular economy development into the core of policy and decision making.

Internationally he has previously served as an independent advisor on environment and sustainability policy to the Board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC. He has also been on the Scientific Advisory Panel of UNEP for the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6) and was previously a Coordinating Lead Author for the Scenarios chapter in GEO4. He has also been a Coordinating Lead Author of the of the Intergovernmental (Science-Policy) Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), first global assessment chapter 5 ‘Pathways to a Sustainable Future’. He is currently the Review Editor for Small Islands in the current 6th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has previously served as a Lead Author in IPCC’s previous 4 and 5th Assessments.