Klaus Töpfer
Klaus Töpfer ( born July 29, 1938 in Waldenburg, Silesia ) is a German politician ( CDU) and former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP).
Training
After the expulsion of the family from Silesia 1945 pottery was in 1959 at King William High School in Hoexter the Abitur. Then he made until 1960 did his military service in the Bundeswehr and was discharged as a lieutenant of the reserve.
Potter holds a degree in economics in Mainz, Frankfurt and Münster, which he finished in 1964 as a graduate economist. From 1965 to 1971 he worked as a research assistant at the Central Institute for Spatial Research and Planning at the University of Münster. In 1968 here his doctorate. pol. with the work of regional policy and the location decision.
Profession
From 1971 to 1978 he was Head of Department for Planning and Information in the State of Saarland. He was a lecturer at the University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer and created development policy advice for Egypt, Malawi, Brazil and Jordan. From 1978 to 1979 he was Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Spatial Research and Planning at the University of Hannover. In addition, Potter was from 1978 to 1979 and a member of the Council of Environmental Advisors and member of the Board of Directors of the Reconstruction Loan Corporation. From 1985 to 1986 he taught as an honorary professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. In November 2005, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tübingen appointed him again as honorary professor. Since 2 May 2007, he is also Professor of Environment and Sustainable Development at Tongji University in Shanghai.
Policy
Since 1972, potter is a member of the CDU. From 1977 to 1979 he was county chairman of the CDU Saarbrücken. He belonged to the State Executive Committee of the CDU Saar.
From 1978 to 1985 he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Environment of the State of Rhineland- Palatinate. On May 23, 1985, he was appointed Minister for the Environment and Health of the State of Rhineland -Palatinate in the led by Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel State Government.
Then took place on 7 May 1987 he was appointed Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the files kept by Chancellor Helmut Kohl Federal Government. After the parliamentary election in 1994 was on 17 November 1994 he was appointed Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development. Potter was from 1990 to 1998 Member of the German Bundestag. He was last (13th legislature, 1994) drawn over the national list Saarland in the German Bundestag.
From 1987 to 1989 he was county chairman of the CDU Rhein- Hunsrück. From 1989 to 1998 he was a member of the CDU Federal Board from 1992 to 1998, the Presidium of the CDU. From 1990 to 1995 he was next state chairman of the CDU of the Saarland. 1990 and 1994, he ran as the top candidate of the Saarland CDU, but was defeated both times Oskar Lafontaine. For the Berlin election in 2006, he was a challenger by Klaus Wowereit talks, but declined on 2 January 2006 in a newspaper interview the takeover of the top candidate from.
Public offices from 1998
Potter resigned on 15 January 1998 from from the federal government to take up his position as Executive Director of the United Nations ( UNEP) Environment Programme in Nairobi, in which he had been elected unanimously by the UN General Assembly on 3 December 1997. His second term ended formally on 31 March 2006. Potters decided not to run for a third term. His successor in the office of the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner is. From 1998 to 2006, Potter was also Under - Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. In addition, he was a member from 2001 to 2010 and most recently Vice Chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development.
Since 2008 Klaus Töpfer is Vice President of Welthungerhilfe.
In February 2009, Potter became director of the newly founded Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies ( IASS ) in Potsdam.
Since 2009 Klaus Töpfer is chairman of the jury of the Innovation Prize for Climate and Environment ( IKU ).
In January 2011, Potter took over the patronage of Charles bucket price, which will be announced on 5 September in Frankfurt am Main by Karl bucket Foundation for Child and Family.
In March 2011, Potter took over the chair of the ethics committee for a secure energy supply for the federal government. The Ethics Commission was established as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster by the federal government. Another chairman Matthias Kleiner was used.
Klaus Töpfer is also patron of the German - Russian commodity - Forum.
He is a member of the Board of the German Society for the United Nations.
Private
Klaus Töpfer has been married since 1968 and has three children. Since his return to Germany he lives in Hoexter.