Ten new leaders the world’s been waiting for

How are young people leading the way on environmental protection?

Re.Generation is a new initiative, recently launched by The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, to support a group of 10 under-35s who are making a tangible, positive impact in their chosen field to combat the climate crisis.

Olivier Wenden, Vice President & CEO of the Foundation, summarises the spirit of the initiative as one of innovation solutions. “I’m thinking about two things,” he says.  “Technology: the most recent IPCC report says we will not meet our climate goals if we do not use technology and the second thing is innovative approach to problems. We can no longer go the way we used to go – the entire economy needs to be rethought.

“Another important thing is the emergence of new mindsets and for that we need the emergence of new talents.”

Each member of the cohort was chosen via a process of nomination and collaboration between the Foundation and a number of organisations, including National Geographic and The International University of Monaco. The initiative began with a two-week course of site visits and masterclasses delivered by a stellar list of names, including Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, Marco Lambertini, former Director General of the WWF, and Abhalah Mokssit, IPCC Secretary. The cohort will have the opportunity to attend key events, such as COP28 in Dubai in November, The World Economic Forum in Davos in January next year and the Monaco Ocean Summit in March 2024. Key to the initiative is 12-months of ongoing support to ensure that the cohort’s work is picked up by international media, and gets on the radar of key decision-makers and influencers.

“We want to leverage their voice, their personality and their projects, because they are already making impacts,” says Wendon. “They are just the last mile before making it as the leaders the world is waiting for.”

The full list of the Re:Generation cohort of 2023 includes:

• Ghassan Atallah, a mechanical engineer looking to move into the world of private equity in order to finance environmentally driven investment.

• Jahawi Bertolli, a Filmmaker and TV presenter specializing in wildlife and the underwater world.

• Sabrine Channaoui, co-founder and CEO of Monsapo, which transforms waste cooking oil into cleaning products.

• Pedro David Fernadez, an agricultural engineer working to help cattle ranchers mitigate the effects of climate change.

• Victoria Herrmann, a storyteller & geographer leading research initiatives and capacity-building programmes to support communities adapt on the front lines of the climate crisis.  

• Gunjan Menon, a wildlife filmmaker, National Geographic Storytelling Explorer & conservation communicator.

• Imogen Napper, a marine scientist and ‘Plastic Detective’ as her research investigates different sources of plastic pollution into the environment.

• Federico Perez, founder and CEO of a company that streamlines nature-based solutions to promote social equity and combat deforestation in Latin America.

• Valy Phommachak, an ecologist & journalist specialising in landscape ecology and nature conservation, and founder of Econews Laos.

• Anne-Sophie Roux, an ocean entrepreneur and activist, working on corporate responsibility programmes to sequester carbon and lobbying to ban deep-sea mining.

For more details, visit Re:Generation Voices

Written By: Angela Everitt