2020: Aligning biodiversity with climate action

Born in Austria, Josef Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s degree and a PhD in natural sciences. He has had an accomplished international career in space, combining more than 35 years’ work experience at ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency, the Asian Institute of Technology and the University of Innsbruck.

As Director General of ESA, Dr Aschbacher is responsible for the definition, implementation and development of Europe’s space infrastructure and activities, which include launchers, satellites performing Earth observation, navigation, telecommunication and space science, together with robotic exploration and ESA astronauts working on the International Space Station. He is responsible for an annual budget of €8.2 billion and a workforce of 6000 distributed across several establishments, principally in Europe.

Joanna Drake has been in charge of coordinating resource-efficiency policies and other legal instruments within the Directorate-General for the Environment since 2016. She also chairs a cross-cutting Task Force spearheading strategic positions for her Directorate on the post-2020 Commission financial framework negotiations, Brexit coordination, the urban agenda and the future-proofing of the EU’s environmental acquis. Prior to this, Drake was director for SMEs and Entrepreneurship in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. During her tenure in DG GROW, she led the Commission’s Task Force on the Collaborative Economy, New Business Models and SMEs.

Radhika Murti, a Fijian national, leads the IUCN’s global work on ecosystem management. She is responsible for monitoring and assessing the status of ecosystems – including the upscaling and application of the Red List of Ecosystems, which measures biodiversity risk. With over 15 years of experience on environment and development issues, Murti is passionate about participatory approaches to conservation that empowers people to have more control of their environments. She initially led the development of the Islands Initiative, and subsequently worked closely with the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) on the development and promotion of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, both as a nature-based solution (NBS) concept and as an operational framework.

Ville Niinistö is a Member of the European Parliament. He coordinates the work of the Greens/EFA Group in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and is a member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). In Finland, he also serves as a member of the City Council of Turku. Niinistö was Finland’s Minister of the Environment from 2011 to 2014 and has also been the leader of the Green Party of Finland. Before his election to the Finnish Parliament, Niinistö worked as a doctoral student in political history at the University of Turku.