Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed the Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. He spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. He has authored numerous bestseller books. His most recent book is Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020). Sachs was twice named as Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders, and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists.

Mr. Harald Egerer is the Head of the UN Environment Vienna Office and acts as the Secretary of the Carpathian Convention on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme. Born on 5 June 1968 in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Egerer graduated in Law at the University of Vienna. After studies of international relations and environmental law and sciences, Mr. Egerer worked as an environmental reporter for the Austrian Press Agency. In 1996, Mr. Egerer joined UN Environment with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention). With UN Environment European Office as of 2001, Mr. Egerer specialized on environmental cooperation in the European region and supported the seven Carpathian countries in the development of the Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians. Since the year 2004, Mr. Egerer has been heading the UN Environment Vienna Office – Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention and represents UN Environment as an environmental focal point for the international Mountain Partnership. The Vienna Office is also UN Environment’s liaison office with the Secretariat of the Alpine Convention and the ICPDR and assists UN Environment in its contacts and collaboration with the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and with UN organizations and institutions based in Vienna. UN Environment Vienna Office - SCC promotes cooperation on the protection and sustainable development among countries in South-Eastern Europe and Caucasus, including UN Environment activities in the ENVSEC initiative, is also the Environmental Reference Centre of the Mountain Partnership and hosts the Eastern Europe Hub of the Mountain Partnership.

Mr. Rios is the Chief of the Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime and the Chief of the Sustainable Livelihoods Unit at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  He is based at UNODC headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Rios has been working on the issues of drugs and crime for over 27 years.  He started his career at the Organization of American States in the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (OAS/CICAD) in 1993 and in 2005 joined UNODC.

Mr. Rios leads the delivery of both normative work and technical assistance on wildlife, forest and fisheries crime and supervises the implementation of UNODC’s alternative development support to member states to address the illicit cultivation of coca, opium poppy and cannabis. Mr. Rios is the Senior Expert from UNODC to the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) - a partnership formed in 2010 comprised of the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization to combat wildlife trafficking.  Mr. Rios is fluent in English and Spanish. 

The UNODC Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime works to improve the criminal justice and preventive response of member states.  The Programme focuses on policy guidance and technical assistance in several areas such as strengthening national legislation, building up States’ scientific, investigative, prosecutorial and judicial capacities, and establishing internal mechanisms to undertake financial investigations and anti-corruption programmes.

Kiran Bali, MBE JP a remarkable global organizational leader and spokesperson in areas of interfaith understanding, environmental justice, women’s empowerment, and peacebuilding through selfless service and multidisciplinary approaches. She is the Global Chair of the world's largest interfaith grassroots network, the United Religions Initiative, Kiran was honored by HM Queen Elizabeth II with the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) accolade in 2008 and has received a number of international awards for her achievements. Tackling climate change through advocacy and empowering grassroots communities with knowledge, she launched the Hindu declaration on climate change and continues to inspire action.

As a UK magistrate, Kiran underpins all her initiatives with the principles of social justice, compassion and equity towards creating safer, healthier and stronger inclusive communities.

Professor (int.) of Criminal Law at the University of Buenos Aires. Lawyer graduated with honors from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Ph.D. in Comparative Law and History of Law (University of Ferrara, Italy).  Ph.D. in Criminal Sciences (University of San Carlos de Guatemala). Deputy Secretary and Founding Member of the Latin American Association of Criminal Law and Criminology (since 2011).  President of the Young Penalists Committee of the International Association of Criminal Law (2014-2019). Member of the Editorial Board of the International Association of Criminal Law (since 2019).  Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Social Defense and Humane Criminal Policy, with consultative status before the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (since 2020).  Director of the Critical Legal Studies Working Group of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (2016-2019). Member of the Latin American Council of Justice and Democracy (CLAJUD), in the Puebla Group (since 2019).  Founding Member of the Global Interreligious Commission on LGBT + Lives (GIC +).  Advisor to the International Commission Against Death Penalty (since 2015).  Member of the Editorial Board of the Criminal Law and Criminology Review of Editorial La Ley (since 2011).  Coordinator of the Commission for the Elaboration of the Draft Law of Reform of the Penal Code of the Nation (2012-2015). Nominated by the President Dr. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as Supreme Court Justice with a favorable opinion of the Commission on Appointments of the H. Senate of the Nation (2015). Fundación Bolsa de Comercio Award (2000). Fulbright-FURP Fellow (2006). Fulbright Scholar (2007). Scholar of the Research Doctorate of the University of Ferrara (2009-2012). Fellow of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences, CLACSO (2011). Visiting researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (2010, 2019). Since 2016, he has worked as Secretary of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.