Tara Houska and Christiana Figueres in conversation with Jess Search at 2018 Skoll World Forum
Speakers
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Convenor, Mission 2020
Christiana Figueres is a world authority on global climate change and was the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC from 2010-2016.
Ms. Figueres is currently Vice-Chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, ClimateWorks Board Member, World Bank Climate Leader, Senior Fellow for Conservation International, ACCIONA Board Member, The B Team Leader, WRI Board Member, Economic Council member for the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health, Leadership Council Member for The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, and Mission2020 Convenor.
During her tenure at the UNFCCC Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and communities of faith, think tanks and technology providers, NGOs and parliamentarians, to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to below 2C. The agreement entered into force in less than a year, breaking the record of the UN. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy.
In addition to her remarkable diplomatic achievements over the past 20 years, she served as Director of Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA) and in 1995 founded the non-profit Center for Sustainable Development of the Americas (CSDA), which she directed for eight years.
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Campaigns Director, Honor the Earth
Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, the Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She spent six months on the frontlines fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is currently engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a non-profit committed to eradicating Native stereotyping.
She has given a TED talk, a keynote at Harvard, received an “Awesome Women Award” from Melinda Gates, and was named an “Icon” on the cover of Outside Magazine’s 40th Anniversary edition. Tara has contributed to the Guardian, Huffington Post, Indian Country Today and been featured on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Democracy Now, and BBC.
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Jess is a founder of Doc Society, which has funded and championed the work of independent documentary filmmakers around the world since 2005. Writing with Fire, I Am Softie, The Edge of Democracy, CITIZENFOUR, The Territory, The Square, Virunga etc Currently obsessed with Climate and Democracy narratives and protecting the space for independent storytelling.
Jess is also a trustee of MSI Reproductive Choices, the world's most effective family planning and abortion provider in 37 countries. Jess is also chair of UK think tank IPPR and a board member of crowdfunding innovator Kickstarter.
Jess is a big fan of the Skoll World Forum.
