"We must advance on a united front, without playing into the hands of climate-deniers who seek to divide us," says Mohan Munasinghe, recipient of the 2021 Blue Planet Prize.
Sri Lankan physicist, engineer and economist Mohan Munasinghe, MA (economics) 75, was recently named recipient of the prestigious 2021 Blue Planet Prize, an international award regarded as the environmental equivalent of a Nobel Prize. Sponsored by Japan’s Asahi Glass Foundation, the honour recognizes exceptional individuals developing global environmental solutions.
Munasinghe certainly fits the bill: During a career spanning nearly 50 years, his trailblazing ideas — including the multidisciplinary ‘Sustainomics’ framework he pioneered that integrates environment, economy and society — have contributed to key global treaties on environment and sustainable development.
“I felt deeply grateful and honoured when I received the award notification from Japan,” says Munasinghe.
“The award is not just one person’s achievement; I’m indebted to so many who have contributed generously to my intellectual development and emotional intelligence, including teachers, mentors, colleagues, family and friends.”
Munasinghe is founder chairman of the non-profit Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), a United Nations-recognized research centre for climate change and sustainable development. He’s also written more than 120 scholarly books and 400 technical papers.
While serving as vice-chair of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Munasinghe shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, LLD 07, former vice-president of the United States.
Sowing the seeds of sustainability at Concordia
Munasinghe believes that the path toward a sustainable society must be achieved in stages and by integrating climate change and sustainable development policies. His own path to success in this field began in Montreal.
While studying for his PhD at McGill University in the early 1970s, Munasinghe worked part-time running macroeconomic models at the International Institute of Quantitative Economics (IIQE), then part of Sir George Williams University — one of Concordia’s founding institutions.
“IIQE director Professor Morido Inagaki, a mathematical economist, encouraged me to learn more about economics to help me work more effectively,” recalls Munasinghe, who then registered for Sir George’s master’s course in development economics.
“This was a branch point — the road to sustainability started at Concordia,” he says. “It was exciting but tough to learn a new subject while simultaneously writing my PhD dissertation in solid state physics, and yet I managed to complete both degrees.”
Munasinghe also holds engineering degrees from Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus several honorary doctorates. The presidents of five countries have presented him with national honours.
“Wide exposure to many topics in my youth probably nudged me in the direction of transdisciplinary research,” he adds.
“Backpacking around five continents during my student days certainly broadened my mind, and made me an internationalist who still enjoys different cultures, peoples and places.”
A change in direction
After graduation, Munasinghe joined the IIQE as a development economist, and after Inagaki shared a recruitment ad for the World Bank’s Young Professionals Programme, he applied and was accepted. Munasinghe moved to Washington in 1975 and began an international public service career that took him to many developing countries, including a stint as senior energy advisor to the Sri Lankan president.
Since then, Munasinghe’s interests evolved from engineering, physics and economics to applications sectors including energy, water, transport and environmental resources, and finally to multidisciplinary issues such as poverty, disasters, climate change and sustainable development — his current focus.
While teaching university graduate courses around the world and publishing widely, Munasinghe began developing the innovative concepts for which he’s now recognized globally. In 2015, his work led to two major international achievements: the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“There are many challenges undermining the effectiveness of our ability to address climate change issues,” says Munasinghe.
“The work I led as vice-chair of the IPCC clearly showed that climate change and sustainable development are intertwined problems which should be solved simultaneously.
“Fortunately, there are ways to reduce environmental resource use without drastically reducing living standards, through an approach called the balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG) path, which I have proposed. We must advance on a united front, without playing into the hands of climate-deniers who seek to divide us.”
Future forward
Munasinghe says the adverse impacts of global issues like climate change (and COVID-19) remind us that human activities have become environmentally unsustainable, and that we must reverse the unhealthy relationship between ecological and socioeconomic systems.
“Metaphorically speaking, modern humans have built their house close to a steep cliff,” he explains. “One doorway to the future will take billions over the cliff edge, by continuing with activities that compound our past folly.
“The second doorway will enable us to walk parallel to the edge after making small behavioral changes, but some people will continue to fall off. The third doorway will reverse our previous direction and set everyone safely on a BIGG path, away from the cliff. By adopting rational, science-based approaches and working together, we can make the third — and right — choice.”
Munasinghe will receive his Blue Planet Prize in Tokyo in October.
