John Agard doesn’t like too much fuss. “They tell me I’m too modest,” says the UWI scientist.

Recently, his aversion to attention has been tested like never before. In early November, it was announced that Agard, one of the region’s leading climate scientists, had been appointed as co-chair of the UN’s 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report team. This is massive. A citizen of T&T is one of the leads on a small team of some of the world’s greatest scientific minds, creating a document to guide our collective human path to a better world.

For someone who has dedicated his career to protecting the environment it's quite an accomplishment, but Agard is adamant, “it’s not about me”.

He made similar statements in December 2019, when his work as one of the co-authors of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report made international news. The global assessment, which looked at the human impact on nature, was powerfully sobering and incredibly timely. A few months later, the world would feel the consequences of mankind’s encroachment into the natural world with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Time is critical,” says Agard about the need to confront the problems the world is facing now.

For the professor of tropical island ecology, the position on the UN sustainable development report team is perhaps his greatest opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the planet and its occupants.

In 2015, the UN General Assembly set the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in its own words, the "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". The SDGs, agreed upon by the UN member states, range from no poverty, to gender equality, to climate action, and responsible consumption and production.

“All of the world’s governments agreed that this is the future we want,” says Agard. “They then set about finding the people with the knowledge that will help them get to that place.”

Governments from the over 190 UN member states selected scientists to be part of the team. Agard was T&T’s choice. Not only did he make it through the selection process (which included an assessment from the UN’s agencies) to become one of the 15, he was made co-chair.

“I was quite surprised,” he says, recalling his response to receiving the letter from UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Based on his status as a well-respected scientist and his international work, his place on the report team is not as surprising as he believes. Apart from his role in the IPBES, Agard was also a lead author on the UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. He has also served as an advisor on sustainability issues to the Inter-American Development Bank and been a member of environmental-related groups within CARICOM and the Association of Caribbean States.

“Yeah, I don't sleep,” he says of the workload.

And that’s just his work outside of the University. As a UWI academic, he has been engaged in serious scholarship, mainly at the St Augustine Campus’ Department of Life Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Technology. He served as the head of Life Sciences for six years. Currently, Agard is the director of the St Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a fledgling campus entity created to unlock and monetise the business creativity of staff and students.

But one of Agard’s favourite responsibilities is teaching:

“When you’re young, people think you don’t have any experience and you aren’t worth their time. My passion is to share everything I have learned with young people so they have more time to get things done.”

Unfortunately, his work for the University has required him to step back from teaching. “I have been mandated to work on other things, he says. Then adds wryly, “So what I do is teach secretly.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this driven environmentalist and academic is his sense of humour. He’s genuinely funny. If you’ve ever experienced a newsroom, his energy is very much like an old school sports journalist, sharp wit and small smiles.

“I was brought up in St James and Woodbrook,” he says. “There were five of us and my parents; we came from humble beginnings.”

Agard says it was his parents who instilled in him the ability to work hard, be determined and make a difference. “My mother is still alive. She’s 95 now. I go to see her every Sunday and have lunch. Her mind is intact.”

A family man, he has a wife and three children of his own. His eldest daughter, Katherine Agard, is a published author who recently appeared at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest this year.

Perhaps it's that strong connection to others that makes him fight so urgently.

“There’s a God,” he says, “and God brought us here to try and make things better.”

In late November, the team of 15 will meet to plan and assign work. Because the SDGs are so different, the structure of the group is interdisciplinary and they have several areas of expertise.

“I can contribute to areas such as climate action and life below water, but we have other experts for poverty, gender and so on,” he says.

The team will also have to use language very carefully and diplomatically as acceptance from the UN member states is crucial to making the plan work. Diplomacy in language isn’t his greatest strength, Agard admits.

“I try to speak the truth, whether you like it or not,” he says. But he is willing to be guided. The report must be embraced and its recommendations implemented. That’s what matters most to him.

“My thing is focusing on action. We must not put together a wonderful report that lies on the shelf. This must lead to action.”

It’s not difficult to be skeptical of attempts to improve the world. Many committed people have seen their work thwarted by powerful interests who benefit from the status quo. Agard has seen it happen many times himself. Yet, he is optimistic today, particularly because of the evolution of sustainability movements from hard science to more inclusive approaches that incorporate wider fields of inquiry like sociology, political science and gender theory.

Still, no matter how easy or difficult the way forward, he has no intention of stopping.

“My passion is to make the world a better place. To make my country a better place. To make my region a better place.”

Without the fuss.