Jim MacNeill, O.C., B.A. BSc. D.Sc., LL.D.
Jim MacNeill is a prime example of the many Saskatchewan people who have played key and often understated roles on the world stage. Author, public servant, and diplomat, MacNeill has been a policy advisor on environment, energy, management and sustainable development to leaders in industry, government, and international organizations for over 40 years.
MacNeill's major contribution was as the Secretary General of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) from 1984-87. He was the principal architect and major author of its world acclaimed final report, Our Common Future, that set out a new global agenda for sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development, 'satisfying present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,' has now filtered into almost every sector of society worldwide.
Prof. David Bell, Director of York's Centre for Applied Sustainability, says MacNeill's work with the WCED is lasting and profound. "MacNeill made a seminal contribution to a document that may turn out to be the most important United Nations report ever written."
Born in Mazenod, Saskatchewan on April 22, 1928 (Earth Day) MacNeill was an "ecological refugee" at the age of one, when his family moved from the southern dust bowl to Sturgis in the central park belt of Saskatchewan. MacNeill completed degrees in science (1949) and mechanical engineering (1958) at the University of Saskatchewan, and a graduate diploma in economics and political science at the University of Stockholm, Sweden (1951). He worked as an engineer/manager with responsibility for coordinating development of the power, irrigation, and other benefits of the multipurpose South Saskatchewan River Development Project (Gardiner Dam). Moving to Ottawa in 1965, he was the first director of policy for the then new Department of Energy, Mines and Resources and was later made responsible for managing federal interests in Canada's water and renewable resources, including marine resources.
In 1970, he became an advisor on the first generation of environmental concerns to Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. During a two-year stint in this office, he authored the first major book published in Canada on Environmental Management. It became a leading text in graduate schools and played a major influence in shaping the founding policies of Canada's Department of Environment.
MacNeill also led Canada's preparations for the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and acted as a senior advisor to the UN Secretary General of that Conference. Later, as Deputy Minister of the federal Ministry of Urban Affairs, he played a major role in shaping Canada's urban policy. This led to his appointment as Commissioner General for the 1976 United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat), held in Vancouver.
From 1978-1984, he was Director of Environment for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. While at OECD, he negotiated several international agreements on policies and programs to enhance environmental quality. He also initiated and directed a landmark program of empirical research on the relationships between the environment and the economy. In 1984, as a direct consequence of this work, OECD put forward the idea that "the environment and the economy could be made mutually reinforcing," a key concept that MacNeill brought into his subsequent work with WCED.
The WCED final report to the UN General Assembly in 1987 recommended the 1992 Earth Summit. From 1989-92, MacNeill was retained as a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the Earth Summit. He also established and chaired the EcoFund, which provided special funding for preparations for this major world gathering.
In recent years, he has been a consultant and advisor to many agencies. On behalf of the Canadian Government, he led a public review of Canada's development assistance policy. He was hired by Ontario Hydro, North America's largest electrical utility, to prepare the first strategy on sustainable energy development and use implemented by a large electrical utility, a strategy that in 1998 was returning around $100 million a year in measurable benefits. He was also a member of the Board of Ontario Hydro from 1994-97. The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) contracted him to streamline its programs and redeploy resources to energy and environment sectors. He also led negotiations between UNDP and the Food and Agriculture Organization for a new UN Food Security Strategy.
In addition, MacNeill was a founding member of the Japanese Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Chairman of the World Bank's Independent Inspection Panel, Chair of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Winnipeg, and a member of the board of the well-respected Wuppertal Institute on Climate and Energy Policy in Germany.
He is currently Chair Emeritus of the IISD, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, a member of the Caspian Development Advisory Panel, and part of the Jury for the Volvo Environment Prize. In 2006, he will receive the Elizabeth Haub Prize for International Environmental Diplomacy awarded by the International Council of Environmental Law (ICEL) and Pace University School of Law.
MacNeill is a recipient of several honorary degrees, as well as the Order of Canada, the Lifetime Achievement Award of Environment Canada, the WASA Environmental Award from the King of Sweden, the City of Paris Silver Medal, and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.
His most recent book, Beyond Interdependence: The Meshing of the World's Economy and the Earth's Ecology, shows that while our global economy and ecology have become completely interlocked, they have remained separate in institutions and the minds of policymakers. The result is a wide range of domestic and international policies that are accelerating the depletion of Earth's basic ecological (and economic) capital. This environmental degradation is seen as the principal source of interstate conflict in the post-Cold War world.