Speaker — Neptune Forum 2026
Monique Barbut
Ministre de la Transition écologique, de la Biodiversité et des Négociations internationales sur le climat et la nature
Minister for Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Climate and Nature Negotiations, France
Holder of a DEA in economics and a degree in English, she began her career at the French Development Agency (AFD) in 1981, where she held several positions related to the development of France's Overseas Territories, the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. A specialist in environmental issues, she contributed to developing an environmental policy at the Ministries of Cooperation and Finance before joining the United Nations Environment Programme in 2003. She subsequently chaired the Global Environment Facility from 2006 to 2012, and then served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification from 2013 to 2019. Deeply committed to climate diplomacy and biodiversity, she served as Special Envoy for the One Planet Summit in 2020, as President of WWF France from 2021 to 2023, and as Special Envoy for the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on Climate in 2023.