Luke Gibbons, a 27-year-old researcher and lecturer from Claremorris, Co Mayo, has been recognised as one the world’s leading young environmental educators.
This Top 30 Under 30 Environmental Educators in the World 2024 award, announced in Washington this week, recognises work with a wide range of audiences to tackle complex environmental and social issues in their communities. Many of the awardees are on the front lines of the climate crisis.
Mr Gibbons, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the University of Oxford, was the only awardee from the European Union and was selected “on the back of a stellar record of promoting environmental education and research”.
An Irish Research Council Government of Ireland scholar and PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, he is also a former Fulbright scholar and visiting researcher at Harvard Law School in the US. His research focuses on company directors’ duties and climate change risks.
In February, he was named in the top 40 Under 40 Irish in America. He is also a “climate reality leader” appointed by former US vice-president Al Gore.
In December he will represent Ireland at the Global Peace Summit in New York with a mandate to discuss Ireland’s potential role to influence the politics of climate change.
Commenting on the award, he said: “While I am lucky to have had a number of achievements in my career thus far, this one feels particularly special, as it acknowledges the positive contribution I am trying to make to future and current generations’ knowledge of the urgency to address the climate crisis.”
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