Earth Trusteeship Advocate Awarded 2021 Carlowitz Sustainability Prize

Dr Klaus Bosselmann, Professor of Environmental Law and Founding Director of the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law at the University of Auckland, has been awarded the 2021 Carlowitz Sustainability Prize (international category).

The award recognises Professor Bosselmann’s role in the “drafting and advocacy of the Earth Charter, the ethical and legal advancement of sustainability and the conceptualisation of Earth trusteeship”.

The prize was announced at an award ceremony on Friday night in Germany, which Professor Bosselmann attended by video link.

Previous awardees include EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, conservationist Jane Goodall (2020), UN Climate Chief Executive Patricia Espinoza and climate activist Greta Thunberg (2019).

The Prize is named after the founder of the concept and term of sustainability (“Nachhaltigkeit”), Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645-1714), and recognises outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of sustainability.

This year’s co-recipient is the esteemed Indian scientist and activist Dr Vananda Shiva, known as the “Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement.

Among Professor Bosselmann’s current leadership roles are:

• Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Ethics Specialist Group
• Chair of the Ecological Law and Governance Association
• Chair of the Earth Trusteeship Initiative
• Co-Chair of the Global Ecological Integrity Group
• Co-Chair of the Common Home of Humanity Scientific Committee

Professor Bosselmann has written 15 books (a number of them translated into multiple languages), edited 17 books and written over 150 articles in the areas of environmental ethics and law, political ecology, international environmental law and global governance.

For his pioneering work on ecological law and Earth jurisprudence he received numerous awards including the Inaugural Senior Scholarship Prize of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, the global body of environmental law scholars.

Read Professor Bosselmann’s recent essay COP26 has all the hallmarks of a Greek tragedy.

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