Professor Mohan Munasinghe, a Sri Lankan engineer, physicist, and economist specializing in energy, water resources, sustainable development, and climate change, was awarded the 2021 Blue Planet Prize, the top global environmental sustainability award “the Environmental Nobel Prize.”
Professor Munasinghe and Mrs. Sria Munasinghe attended the ceremonies for the Blue Planet Prize hosted by the Asahi Glass Foundation in Tokyo, where they were felicitated by Royalty and other grandees of Japan. The ceremony had been postponed to October 2022 due to the Covid Pandemic restrictions in 2021. The Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko of Japan granted Prof. Munasinghe and his wife an exclusive audience. In addition, they exchanged mutual felicitations with HRH Sonam Dechen Wangchuck, who attended the ceremony on behalf of her father, His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan, the 2022 Blue Planet Prize laureate.
The award recognizes Prof. Munasinghe’s extensive environmental and sustainability research through his ground-breaking concepts, including the Sustainomics framework, sustainable development triangle, Millennium Consumption Goals (MCG), and balanced, inclusive green growth path (BIGG).
His work has influenced significant global accords like the 1992 Agenda 21 and UNFCCC, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2005 Copenhagen Accord, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and UN 203the 0 Agenda & Sustainable development Goals. Prof. Munasinghe served as vice chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He has received the highest national accolades from the heads of five countries. Additionally, he serves as the President of the Presidential Expert Commission on the Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision, an Honorary Senior Advisor to the Sri Lankan Government, and a Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking University I,n China.
Acquiring post-graduate degrees in engineering, physics, and development economics from Cambridge University (UK), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), McGill University, and Concordia University (Canada), Prof. Munasinghe has also won numerous honorary doctorates (honoris causa). In addition, his forty years of exemplary public service are embellished with eminent designations such as Senior Energy Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, Advisor to the United States President’s Council on Environmental Quality (PCEQ), and Senior Advisor/Manager to the World Bank.
