Bedrich Moldan was Minister for the Environment of the Czech Republic. He has been Director of Charles University’s Centre for Environmental Questions since 1992. He was elected Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development’s Ninth Session in 2001.

Professor Moldan graduated in 1958 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, environmental sciences, education and policy.

Prior to his time in the Czech government Moldan was Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the Ecological Section, the most important green NGO in Czechoslovakia 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 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 the 1990s he was Chair of the National Climate Program (1991-98), the Union of Nature Conservation (1991-97), the Scientific Board of the Department of Environmental Statistics (1994-98) 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, the European Consultative Forum on the Environment and Sustainable Development, the European Environment Agency’s Scientific Committee, OECD, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Environment Advisory Committee, the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic, UNDP and the Teplice Program.

Prior to his Chairmanship of the Commission on Sustainable Development in 2000 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 for UNCED preparations.