SUNx Malta announce the launch of the Annual Maurice Strong Climate Friendly Travel Lecture Series. Supported by the Earth Charter International based in Costa Rica; the European Centre for Peace and Development in Belgrade; the China Biodiversity and Green Development Foundation in Beijing.

It is 50 years since the first Earth Summit that Maurice Strong led in Stockholm and 30 years after the Second Earth Summit in Rio that he also led.  We are acting to commemorate his early vision on the need for humanity to confront the existential Climate Crisis.

We are also putting in place an annual marker of the Code Red Climate Crisis and the key response role that Tourism must play.

We will host each Memorial Lecture in the side-lines of the Annual COP Climate Summit, with the first one at Sharm el Sheikh in November 2022. It will be delivered by the former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon and Honorary Chair of the New Climate Economy Commission, in a hybrid event that will be streamed worldwide, over the World Tourism Network.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman President of SUNx Malta said “ Maurice Strong, more than any other human being laid the foundations for today’s global Code Red Climate response. He saw Travel & Tourism as a pivotal sector for stimulating positive change. We are proud to start this Lecture series in his memory and delighted that President Calderon accepted to deliver the inaugural address to build on his inspired vision”.

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  Notes on Maurice Strong

  Despite not finishing high school, as a teenager in Canada, Maurice Strong was 7 times Under Secretary General of the UN. He earned some 60 honorary degrees from around the world, before his death just before the 2015 Paris Climate COP, which started with a eulogy to him.

  Secretary General of Stockholm 72 the 1st Earth Summit, launching the global green movement

  Founding Executive Director of UNEP leader of the UN Environment System during its formative years of the 1970s

  Member of the Club of Rome that defined Planetary Boundaries. Of the Founding Board of the World Economic Forum, that brought business to the environment table. And of the Brundtland Commission that defined Sustainable Development as leaving the world a better place for our Kids. He was also Advisor to the World Bank President

  Secretary General of the landmark 2^nd Rio Earth Summit, in 1992 – commemorating 20 years of Stockholm - with its visionary Agenda 21 codifying Sustainable Development.  Spawning Conventions on Climate, Desertification, Biodiversity and Forest Management. Empowering UNFCCC and IPCC

  Designer with former USSR President, Mikhael Gorbachev of the Earth Charter, introduced in the Hague in 2000 – a far-sighted compact between people & planet - picking up where Rio stopped.

  These are the firm foundations that today support the SDGs and Paris 1.5, The 2030/2050 Agenda, former UN Secretary General Ban Ky Moon called “the Future We Want”.

  See www.mauricestrong.net