Generations have often wondered what kind of world they might leave to their successors. Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez (SLA ’14) didn’t wait to find out what type of world he would inherit — as vice chair for the Implementation of the United Nations Climate Change Convention, he has already forged a path to accelerate climate solutions globally.

Just a few years after graduating from Tulane, Monterrey Gomez was recognized by President Barack Obama as an inaugural scholar to the Obama Foundation. Since then, he led the youngest delegation (Panama) at COP26, the U.N. Climate Change Conference held last year in Glasgow, Scotland; founded the Climate Resilient think tank; and currently serves as executive director of the Geoversity School of Biocultural Leadership.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference has been at it for 30 years, having been established the same year Monterrey Gomez was born. Panama is one of the few carbon negative countries in the world — its forest absorbs more carbon than the total amount of climate change causing pollution generated by its economy yearly.

“I think the youth climate activists are probably the most important constituency in this whole conversation,” Monterrey Gomez said. “They know the science, they defend the science, they see that progress has not really attained the results. … Also, we are going to be the ones suffering if we do not address the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves.”

Monterrey Gomez has worked in many regional and international roles, but “my heart has always been in Panama,” he said. Upon returning to the Ministry of Environment from the U.N. in 2020, Panama’s leaders asked him to not only lead the climate negotiations team but to also design the national carbon market. In November 2021, the Panamanian president honored Monterrey Gomez’s work and appointed him to read Panama’s Declaration of Independence from Spain in commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Republic.

His time at Tulane, studying economics and international development, helped prepare him for the tasks that lay ahead. Monterrey Gomez said he worked closely with professors Nora Lustig, Carol Whelan and Laura Murphy, and with the Center for Public Service.

Monterrey Gomez said he’s inspired by other young people who advocate every day for climate awareness, including those who protest.

“When the youth climate movement started rising, I was inside government already,” he said. “But the passion, the force, their demands in the streets is what actually helps me to continue to be motivated.”