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Professor Mohan Munasinghe & Mayor Braganca of Guimaraes City, holding the prestigious European Green Capital award presented to Guimaraes City, in Valencia on 27 Nov. 2024
Mohan Munasinghe, recipient of the 2021 Blue Planet Prize, and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (as Vice Chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC), is chief advisor to the Portuguese city of Guimaraes, which received the coveted European Green Capital award in Valencia, on 27 November 2024. The photo shows him holding the award with Mayor Braganca of Guimaraes.
Professor Munasinghe has contributed significantly to this major achievement. He has been advising and guiding the Mayor and staff of Guimaraes on sustainability and environmental matters for over 10 years, specifically aiming for the European Green Capital award. It is the top European prize for environmental excellence, awarded annually to a European city with more than 100,000 inhabitants that excels in matters of environmental, social and economic sustainability.
The award is the result of a rigorous selection process, during which candidate cities must present arguments and evidence of what has already been implemented at the time, and what will still be done to become more sustainable. The panel responsible for evaluating applications for the European Green Capital 2026, was made up of seven independent experts. They highlighted the exceptional performance of Guimarães in seven environmental areas: air quality, noise, water, biodiversity, green areas and land use, waste and circular economy, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Professor Munasinghe is Chairman of the MIND Group in Colombo, which includes the non-profit Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), a UN recognized centre of excellence on sustainable development, and MIND AM focusing on data analytics and management. He is Chairman of the Board of Climate & Conservation Consortium (CCC). He is also Board Director of Eureka Group, Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking Univ., China, and Chairman of the Presidential Expert Committee on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision.
1. Portugal News: https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2024-11-28/guimaraes-elected-european-green-capital-2026/93868
2. INEEWS: https://ineews.eu/guimaraes-eleita-capital-verde-europeia-2026/
3. You Tube video: European Green Capital Award is presented to Guimaraes City at Minute 30 of video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoV5ifk0_Tw