Razan Al Mubarak

Razan Al Mubarak - United Arab Emirates

Environmental Development and Sustainability - 2022

Razan Al Mubarak is the President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and has played a vital role in guiding her country toward a more sustainable future. Her experience leading the largest environmental regulatory agency in the Middle East has earned her recognition as one of the top 100 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2018. She was appointed managing director of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi in 2010 and became the youngest to lead an Abu Dhabi governmental entity. Under her leadership, the government doubled its protected wildlife areas and adopted the region’s first carbon targets: a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by 2030. Under her guidance, the EAD has established global partnerships, convened four meetings of the IUCN Species Survival Commission since 2008, and hosted one of the Convention on Migratory Species’ two offices. Razan is also the founding director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. She helped establish Emirates Nature, an NGO associated with the World Wildlife Fund. She has spearheaded initiatives to protect the UAE’s coral and conducted field surveys that led to the establishment of the country’s first mountain national park. Within the UAE, Razan chairs the board of directors for the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture and is a board member for Masdar. Internationally, she is an advisory board member of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, and the Emirates Diplomatic Academy, and is a board member of Panthera and the Women in Sustainability, Environment, and Renewable Energy Initiative.