Professor Mohan Munasinghe appointed the Chief Advisor to Guimarães City

Winner of European Green Capital Award 2026

Mohan Munasinghe with Mayor Braganca of Guimarães city.

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 the Chief Advisor to the Portuguese city of Guimarães, which received the coveted European Green Capital award in Valencia, on November 2024. 

Professor Munasinghe has contributed significantly to this major achievement. He has been advising and guiding the Mayor and staff of Guimarães 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 and 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 the Chairman of the MIND Group in Colombo, which is a UN recognised 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 the Board Director of Eureka Group, distinguished Guest Professor at Peking University  China, and Chairman of the Presidential Expert Committee on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision.