Achim Steiner (born 17 May 1961) is a Brazilian-German environmentalist who currently serves as the administrator of the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

and vice-chair of United Nations Sustainable Development Group. Before joining UNDP, he was executive director of the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

UNEP (2006–2016), and director of the Oxford Martin School (2016–2017). He has also served as director general of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) and secretary-general of the

World Commission on Dams The World Commission on Dams (WCD) existed between April 1997 and 2001, to research the environmental, social and economic impacts of the development of large dam, dams globally. The self-styled WCD consisted of members of civil society, academia ...

Early life and education

The son of a German farmer who had emigrated to

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

,Michael McCarthy (8 April 2012),
Achim Steiner: 'We haven't even begun to understand the damage we are bringing to bear on the sustainability of our planet'
, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. Achim Steiner was born in Brazil in 1961 and holds German as well as Brazilian citizenship. He went to school in Carazinho and at Dover College. He obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from Worcester College of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, specializing in development economics,

regional planning Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...

international development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic development, economic or human development (economics), human development on an international sca ...

and environmental policy. He also studied at the

German Development Institute The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) is one of the leading think tanks for development policy worldwide.This has been attested in January 2013 by the ranking of the Global Go To Think Tanks Report (of the Think Tanks an ...

and the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Career

Steiner started his career in 1989 at the Rural Regional Development Department, GIZ, in Germany. From 1991 to 1997 he worked for the

(IUCN) in Southern Africa and Washington, D.C. He was Chief Technical Adviser of the Mekong River Commission (1997–1998) before becoming Secretary-General of the

. In 2001 he returned to IUCN as Director-General.

United Nations Environment Programme, 2006–2016

Acting on the nomination of Secretary-General

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

, the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

in 2006 unanimously elected Steiner Executive Director of the

(UNEP) for a four-year term. At the time, he was not nominated by a Member State, but prevailed over candidates such as Børge Brende of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and Rajendra K. Pachauri of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. His mandate was later extended twice, this time on the proposal of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Secretary-General appointed Steiner as director-general of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), where he served from March 2009 to May 2011. Within the UN system, he also chaired the High-level Committee on Programmes of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and th
United Nations Environment Management Group
On 3 May 2016, Ban Ki-moon announced that the post of executive director of UNEP would be taken over by Erik Solheim in June 2016.

Oxford Martin School, 2016–2017

Upon leaving UNEP, Steiner was appointed director of the Oxford Martin School, a post he took up in September 2016. In addition to his role at the University of Oxford, Steiner was appointed Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement by the Federal Government of Germany in October 2016. In late 2015,

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

reported that Steiner was one of three candidates shortlisted to succeed

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, l ...

, alongside Helle Thorning-Schmidt of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Jasmine Whitbread of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and Filippo Grandi of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

; the post eventually went to Grandi.

United Nations Development Programme, 2017–present

In April 2017, following consultations with the executive board of the

(UNDP), Secretary-General

appointed Steiner as the programme's new Administrator. On 19 April 2017, the

confirmed him for a four-year term. In November 2018, Guterres also appointed Steiner to co-chair (alongside Maria Ramos) the United Nations Task Force on Digital Financing of

Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

Other activities

* Generation Unlimited, Member of the Board (since 2018) * Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Ex-Officio Member of the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (since 2017) * International Gender Champions (IGC), Member (since 2017) * OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), Co-chair of the Governing Board (since 2017) * German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), Member (2016–2017, appointed ad personam by

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel) *

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC), Member of the Sustainability and Legacy Commission * Agora Verkehrswende, Chairman of the Council * Platform on Disaster Displacement, Chair of the Advisory Committee * China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), International Vice-chair * Earth Day Network, Member of the Global Advisory Committee * The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), Member of the Advisory Board * European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Member of the Environmental Advisory Council (ENVAC)

Honours and awards

Awards

* Slovak Republic's gold medal for Diplomatic Service * Republic of Korea Order of Diplomatic Service Award * 2012 — The National German Sustainability Award * 2010 – Leadership Award for Principled Pragmatism – Tällberg Foundation * 2009 — Officer of the Order of Saint-Charles (Monaco)
Shark Guardian of the Year
2008 – Shark Project * 2008 — Schubert Prize – Bruno H. Schubert Foundation * 2007 — Steiger Award – Umwelt

Honorary degrees

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

, International University in Geneva (IUG) * Honorary Professor,

Tongji University Tongji University is a public university located in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. Tongji is one of the ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

References

External links

Interview with Achim Steiner

Official website of UNEP

Biography at Oxford Martin School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Achim Living people Brazilian officials of the United Nations Alumni of SOAS University of London Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Alumni of the University of London Harvard Business School alumni United Nations Environment Programme People associated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature 1961 births German officials of the United Nations People from Carazinho