Grazyna Pulawska

Senior Project Manager, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Grazyna Pulawska joined ASEF in February 2010. She is responsible for the Asia-Europe Environment Forum programme, which aims to strengthen co-operation between Asian and European stakeholders in the field of environmental and sustainable development with the focus on Sustainable Development Goals.

Prior to ASEF, Grazyna worked for the Ministry of Economy in Poland in the field of regional development. She has also been active in the NGO sector, mainly with the Service Civil International grass root international peace network with an offices in 52 countries and the Development Wheel, a Bangladesh-based NGO specialising in supporting local entrepreneurship and fair trade.

She received her Master's degree in International Relations through a joint programme between the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Warsaw School of Economics.

Yasuhiko Hotta

Director, Sustainable Consumption and Production, IGES

Hotta holds DPhil in International Relations from University of Sussex in 2004. Before joining IGES in September 2005, he was a project assistant of UNU/ Zero Emissions Research Initiative at United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Studies, Contracted Researcher (Industrial Policy Area), Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. He has been involved in both policy initiatives and research projects in relation to sustainable resource circulation such as G8’s 3R Initiative and Working Group for 3R Policies for Southeast and East Asia at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). He is a member of several advisory committees for Ministry of the Environment Japan. He is also a part-time lecturer for Tokyo Institute of Technology and Sophia University.

Riko Kimoto

Project Manager, Sustainable Development & Public Health Department, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Riko KIMOTO, a Japanese national, joined ASEF in April 2016, and she leads ASEF Public Health Network. Prior to joining ASEF, she has gained extensive field NGO/volunteer experience in Latin America, collaborating with the local/international agencies such as Ministry of Health and UNHCR, dealing with a wide range of issues related to health. Other than the Americas, she also worked in Africa as a project supervisor for hospital management. Since she has lived much of her adult life in countries other than her own including Haitian Batey (village) in rural Dominican Republic, she became very capable of adapting to different cultures and lifestyles, and enjoys it.

Riko has a Bachelor of Nursing degree from Australian Catholic University, and she is a qualified nurse with several years of clinical experience. She then obtained her Master’s degree in International Public Health (MIPH) from University of Queensland. For MIPH, she conducted her research in Mexico, and her article has been published on a professional journal afterwards.

Atsushi Watabe

Research Manager, Sustainable Consumption and Production, IGES

Atsushi Watabe has a strong background in the Sociology of Rural Development, Population Movement, and Migration in the South-east Asian Countries. He is also experienced in monitoring and evaluating environmental policies (in particular climate policies) in the developing countries. He has been engaged in the tasks as follows: Monitoring and Advisory of Indonesia Climate Change Program Loan (2008-2012), Fukushima Action Research (2012-14), UN 10-Year Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production (2014-), and Policy Design and Evaluation to Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns in Asian Region (2016-).

Dechen Tsering

Director, Asia and the Pacific Office, UN Environment (UNEP-ROAP)

Dechen Tsering was appointed as the regional director of UN Environment in Asia and the Pacific in March 2017. As the regional arm of UN Environment, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the Asia-Pacific office works with governments, local authorities and the private sector to develop and put into place cleaner and safer policies and strategies that encourage the efficient use of natural resources and reduce risks for humans and the environment.

Ms Tsering has held management and leadership positions with the United Nations and has over 25 years of experience in national government and intergovernmental organisations. She has been actively involved in intergovernmental negotiations as a key negotiator for least-developed countries and contributed to the establishment of the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group. She also has experience in the management of complex development projects.

She comes to UN Environment from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, where she served as director of the Finance, Technology and Capacity-building Programme. In that position, she supported international co-operation on mobilisation of finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building to enable countries to take enhanced action on climate change. Prior to that position, she was the deputy regional director of UN Environment in Asia and the Pacific.

Ms Tsering holds a PhD in forest economics and policy from the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. She also has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Lukáš-Pokorný

Head of International Organisations Unit, Department of International Relations, Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic

Lukas is Head of International Organisations Unit at the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. He has 10 years of experience in the area of international environmental governance and was vice-chair of the Aarhus Convention Bureau from 2011-2016. Currently vice-chair of the UNECE Committee of Environmental Policy and most recently, co-chair of the UNEA-4 resolution on GEO-6; and principal coordinator for the OECD Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic 2018. Part of the OECD EPR team of Switzerland (2017) and UNECE EPR team of Croatia (2013).

Moderator

Grazyna Pulawska

Senior Project Manager, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Grazyna Pulawska joined ASEF in February 2010. She is responsible for the Asia-Europe Environment Forum programme, which aims to strengthen co-operation between Asian and European stakeholders in the field of environmental and sustainable development with the focus on Sustainable Development Goals.

Prior to ASEF, Grazyna worked for the Ministry of Economy in Poland in the field of regional development. She has also been active in the NGO sector, mainly with the Service Civil International grass root international peace network with an offices in 52 countries and the Development Wheel, a Bangladesh-based NGO specialising in supporting local entrepreneurship and fair trade.

She received her Master's degree in International Relations through a joint programme between the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Warsaw School of Economics.

Sun Xiangyang

Deputy Executive Director, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Mr SUN Xiangyang is the 7th Deputy Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). He assumed the post in January 2017. As one of the two top management members, Mr SUN supports the Executive Director, Ambassador Karsten WARNECKE, in the overall planning, management and administration of ASEF, as well as the implementation of its policies and programmes.

Mr SUN is a seasoned diplomat from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), with over 25 years of experience. He has held the positions of the Division Director of the Asian Department, Counsellor of the International Economic Department, MFA, China, and Deputy Head of mission and Political Counsellor in Brunei and the Philippines. He has also served overseas stints in the Chinese Embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar.

His extensive diplomatic career has equipped Mr SUN with an insightful and multicultural understanding, and adept skills in inter-cultural and cross-sectoral dialogue and collaboration. Mr SUN holds a B.A. in English literature from the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Hideyuki Mori

Executive Director, IGES

Hideyuki Mori is a graduate of the School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He joined IGES in 2003. Prior to joining IGES, he served as Environment Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, Senior Environmental Coordinator of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, Director of the Office of Research and Information at the Global Environment Issues Division of the Environment Agency of Japan (present Ministry of the Environment), and as Portfolio Manager of the Division of GEF at the United Nations Environment Programme. He was a professor at Keio University from 2008-2010. He has served as the Executive Director of IGES since 2010.