We know about the “tragedy of the commons”. But how about the opportunity they present? The crisis facing the ultimate global commons – the very conditions that make human civilization and economic prosperity possible – confronts us with the necessity of making our societies and economies more sustainable and less inequitable

One who is determined to exploit the opportunity to achieve transformational change is Ms. Naoko Ishii, the CEO and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). She is starting with her own organization – the world's largest public funder of international programmes to benefit the global environment – aiming to “develop a new way of doing business” through the GEF’s annual $1 billion disbursement to bring about “system change” And she wants to use the momentum of last year's adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agreement in Paris on combatting climate change to make the green economy a priority for finance ministers.

Ishii herself moved from a finance ministry to take on the GEF leadership in 2012, from being Deputy Vice Minister of Finance in Japan and Executive Assistant to its Prime Minister for Global Environmental Finance. She had previously served as the World Bank's Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives and had split a 30-year career between the Japanese Government and international financial institutions. An economist, she has published many papers and two award-winning books.

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