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Klaus Töpfer
Töpfer in 2003
4thExecutive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
In office 15 January 1998 – 31 March 2006
Secretary-General	Kofi Annan
Preceded by	Elizabeth Dowdeswell
Succeeded by	Achim Steiner
Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development
In office 17 November 1994 – 14 January 1998
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl
Preceded by	Irmgard Schwaetzer
Succeeded by	Eduard Oswald
Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Reactor Security
In office 22 April 1987 – 17 November 1994
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl
Preceded by	Walter Wallmann
Succeeded by	Angela Merkel
Parliamentary constituencies Member of theBundestag forSaarland In office 20 December 1990 – 28 February 1998 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Personal details
Born	Klaus Töpfer (1938-07-29)29 July 1938 Waldenburg/Schlesien,Gau Silesia,Germany (nowWałbrzych, Poland)
Died	8 June 2024(2024-06-08) (aged 85) Munich,Bavaria, Germany
Political party	Christian Democratic Union (1972–2024)
Children	3
Residence	Höxter
Alma mater	University of Münster
Occupation	Politician Businessman Civil Servant Academic Assistant
Other offices held 2009–2015: Director,Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies

Klaus Töpfer (29 July 1938 – 8 June 2024) was a German politician (CDU) and environmental politics expert. From 1998 to 2006 he was executive director of theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Töpfer was born inWaldenburg,Silesia. He studied economics inMainz,Frankfurt andMünster. In 1968 he earned his doctorate at theUniversity of Münster.^[1] Töpfer died on 8 June 2024, at the age of 85.^[2]

In 1971, Töpfer was appointed Head of Planning and Information of the Federal State of Saarland, a post he held until 1978. During that time, he also served as a visiting professor at theAcademy of Administrative Sciences inSpeyer, and consulted several countries on development policy, among them Egypt, Brazil and Jordan. He spent the following year at theUniversity of Hannover as Professor and Director of the Institute for Spatial Research and Planning.^[1]

In 1985, Töpfer became State Minister for the Environment and Health in the government of Minister-PresidentBernhard Vogel ofRhineland-Palatinate.

In 1987, Töpfer became Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety underChancellorHelmut Kohl. During his time in office, Germany established theFederal Office for Radiation Protection as a response to theChernobyl disaster and theTransnuklear scandal.

From 1994 to 1998 he served as Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Civil Engineering and Urban Development. He was a member of theBundestag from 1990 to 1998 and a member of the Steering Committee of theCDU from 1992 to 1998.

In 1998, Töpfer was appointed Under Secretary General of theUnited Nations, General Director of the United Nations office inNairobi and Executive Director of theUnited Nations Environment Programme. Among the milestones of his eight-year tenure are a number of important environmental agreements, including theCartagena Protocol on Biosafety and theStockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Töpfer was also closely involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations in support of theKyoto Protocol onclimate change. In June 2006 he was succeeded in this office byAchim Steiner. As director of UNEP, he had a key role in gauging and attempting to remedy the environmental costs of the2004 Asian tsunami.

In 2009 Töpfer was appointed founding director of theInstitute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) which performs research between climate problems and sustainable economics. This institute is located atPotsdam, Germany. The institute's funding is provided by the federal government of GermanyFederal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany).

Töpfer was rumored as a possible successor to the German presidency afterChristian Wulff's resignation.^[3] He later served as co-chairman of the Federal Government’s Ethics Commission on a Safe Energy Supply.

From 2013 Töpfer headed the project "DEMOENERGY – The Transformation of the Energy System as the Engine for Democratic Innovations"^[4] together withClaus Leggewie andPatrizia Nanz (both Institute for Advanced Study in the HumanitiesEssen, Germany). In 2016, theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) appointed Töpfer as co-chairman (alongsideJuan Somavia) of an Independent Team of Advisors on positioning the UN development system for theSustainable Development Goals.

In 2018,Energy Community appointed Töpfer to serve as a mediator in an energy dispute betweenKosovo and Serbia.^[5][6]

• Theva, Member of the Senior Advisory Council (from 2017)^[7]
• Porsche, Member of the Sustainability Advisory Board (from 2016)^[8]
• ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Member of the Advisory Board (from 2011)
• Deutsche Bank, Member of the Climate Change Advisory Board (2011)^[9]
• Volkswind Gruppe, Member of the Advisory Board (2009–2015)

• atmosfair, Patron^[10]
• Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit, Member of the Advisory Board^[11]
• Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Member of the Senate (2007–2009)
• Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production (EEP),University of Stuttgart, Member of the Advisory Board^[12]
• German Foundation for World Population (DSW), Member of the Advisory Board
• German-Russian Raw Materials Forum, Patron^[13]
• Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, Member of the Board^[14]
• Agora Energiewende, Chairman of the Council (2013–2018)^[15]
• German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), Member (2001–2010, appointed ad personam byChancellorGerhard Schröder)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKlaus Töpfer.

• https://archive.today/20130416041104/http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=43&ArticleID=3174
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110524114350/http://www.gleeds.tv/index.cfm?video=99
• https://www.iass-potsdam.de/en/people/klaus-topfer

• 1938 births
• 2024 deaths
• People from Wałbrzych
• Environment ministers of Germany
• Club of Rome members
• Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians
• Members of the Bundestag for Saarland
• Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998
• German officials of the United Nations
• People from the Province of Lower Silesia
• United Nations Environment Programme
• Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• People from Freiberg
• Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• State ministers of Rhineland-Palatinate

• Articles with German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from June 2024
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• Use dmy dates from June 2024
• Commons category link is on Wikidata