Young Cebuana to be honored in LA environmental forum

For her contributions to sustainable development, climate change awareness and human rights, 27-year-old Filipina Esperanza Garcia will be recognized at an international environmental forum in Los Angeles, California, this August.

Co-founder of the International Youth Council and the president of Philippine Youth Climate Movement, Garcia will receive the Youth Trailblazer Award from the Women In Green Forum 2014 on August 26 at the Luxe Sunset Blvd.

“We are thrilled that Esperanza Garcia will accept the Youth Trailblazer Award at the 5th Annual Women In Green Forum,” said Jaime Nack of Three Squares Inc., the environmental consulting firm responsible for developing the conference, in a statement.

He said the Women In Green Forum’s mission is “to honor and celebrate environmental innovators like Ms. Garcia and inspire future generations toward careers in environmental sustainability.”

Garcia, a Cebuana, organized the Columbia University Coalition for Sustainable Development, which co-organized a United Nations-sanctioned youth movement. She also worked as a climate change consultant for the Philippine Senate Oversight Climate Change Committee and in the advisory council for World Women Global Council.

In addition to spearheading these international development groups, Garcia served as a negotiator and official delegate of the Philippines at the UN Climate Change Conference. Last year, she was
a keynote speaker for TEDx Richmond's Environmental Sustainability.

Established in 2009, the Women in Green Forum hosts "an international audience of environmental leaders" to discuss environmental issues and their effect on corporate, academic, and technological developments.

The forum also makes appeals to policy and legislation affecting the development of green technologies. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

Photo from Esperanza Garcia's website.