Tasneem Essop

Tasneem Essop is currently the Executive Director of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I). She is also serving her second term as Commissioner in the National Planning Commission in South Africa, appointed by the President, and leads the work on Climate Change and the Just Transition.

She previously headed the climate team in WWF International and served as the Head of Delegation for the organisation at the UNFCCC. She became a Member of the Provincial Parliament in the Western Cape in 1994 and held the positions of Provincial Minister of Transport, Public Works and Property Management from 2001 to 2004 and Provincial Minister for the Environment, Planning and Economic Development from 2004 to 2008 when she resigned from politics. Tasneem was an anti-apartheid activist from an early age in different capacities until the democratic elections in 1994. During this time, she was a student and youth activist, a teacher and a trade unionist.