MAURICE STRONG (1929 – 2015) Maurice Strong was a truly At the 2014 UN General Assembly, LATE LAST YEAR, exceptional human being and a leader Maurice Strong called on world leaders THE WORLD LOST ONE in the global family. Few individuals to “rise to their historic responsibility can claim to have shaped the course as custodians of the planet, to take OF ITS GREATS WHEN of history over the past 50 years in decisions that will unite rich and poor, MAURICE STRONG, the way Maurice Strong did, and he North, South, East and West, in a continued to exert huge influence new global partnership to ensure THE FOUNDING until the last days of his life. our common future”. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR His courageous leadership allowed This call to action – building on OF UNEP, PASSED the Stockholm Conference of 1972 to the sustainability road-map which AT THE AGE OF make history by launching a new era of started in Stockholm and continued international environmental diplomacy, in Rio, Johannesburg and Rio+20 – 86 – JUST DAYS which saw the birth of UNEP, the first became reality last year with the 2030 BEFORE THE PARIS UN agency to be headquartered in Sustainable Development Agenda a developing country. He accepted and the Paris Agreement. There can AGREEMENT THAT the appointment to become UNEP’s be no more fitting tribute to Maurice IS, IN MANY WAYS, first Executive Director and moved to Strong’s legacy. Kenya to establish UNEP’s iconic global A LEGACY OF HIS LIFE headquarters on what was then a UNEP mourns his loss, and is grateful OF ENVIRONMENTAL coffee farm on the outskirts of Nairobi. to this day for the vision and leadership he brought to the environmental LEADERSHIP. Maurice Strong will forever be challenges of our generation and remembered for placing the his role in forging a new vision environment on the international for sustainable development. agenda and at the heart of development. He shepherded global environmental governance processes – from the original Rio Earth Summit, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration to the launch of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. 60 UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME.