Irene Giner-Reichl

Her main area of expertise is economic and social development, women’s rights’ issues, environment, energy, and development cooperation. She directed the international department of the Austrian Ministry for the Environment, was Austria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, IAEA, UNIDO and CTBTO in Vienna, and headed the UNIDO Office in New York. She was Director General for Austria’s development policy and cooperation before assuming the ambassadorship for Austria in China and Mongolia (2012 to 2017), followed by Brazil and Suriname (2017 until March 2021). She retired in April 2021 and continues to advocate for gender equality in the sustainable energy sector and to teach, lecture and publish widely. She is, i.a., the president of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy (GFSE) which she founded in 1999, founder of the Austrian National Committee for UN Women, co-founder of the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), and a member of the boards of the Austrian Center for Peace in Stadtschlaining, the Austrian Institute for International Politics (ÖIIP) and the European Forum Alpbach.