Bedrich Moldan

Bedrich Moldan
born August 15, 1935, Prague

Professor Bedrich Moldan was Minister for the Environment of the Czech Republic. He is Director of the Charles University Environment Center (since 1992).
At present, Moldan is member of many important organizations, including:
• chairman of the Scientific Council of the European Environmental Agency in Copenhagen;
• member of the High Level Group on Lisbon Strategy in Brussels;
• member of the Czech National Sustainable Development Council and Chairman of its Committee on Sustainable Development Strategy;
• member of the Czech Statistic Council;
• shadow Minister of Environment of the Czech opposition Civic Democratic Party;
• vice-chairman of the Scientific Board of the Czech Ministry of the Environment;
• coordinating lead author of the international project “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Professor Moldan graduated in 1953 from Charles University Prague in Analytical Chemistry and earned his Candidate of Sciences in 1964. During his research career Moldan has extensively researched environment and sustainable development issues. He has authored and edited numerous scientific publications in the fields of biogeochemistry and environmental chemistry during the Communist rule. He also worked at Charles University, the Czechoslovak Spectroscopic Society and the Geological Institute of Prague.
Between 1989 and 1991 Moldan held the historic position of the first Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic. Since then he has combined his scientific work with involvement in the International environmental arena. For example, during 1990s he was Chair of the National Climate Program (1991-98), the Union of Nature Conservation (1991-97) and of the SCOPE project “Indicators of Sustainable Development” (1994-97).
During his career Moldan has also worked with, among others, the Czech delegation negotiating accession to the European Union, the Regional Environmental Center Budapest (as a chairman of the Board of Directors), the European Consultative Forum on the Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ad Hoc Group on Sustainable Development of OECD, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development´s Environment Advisory Committee, the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic.Prior to his Chairmanship of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2000-2001 Moldan had been involved in the UN process as Vice-Chair of the CSD´s Second Session in 1994, as well as Chairman of the PrepCom Working Group III and Vice-Chairman/Rapporteur of the Main Committee of UNCED in Rio de Janeiro.