Esperanza Garcia was born and raised in Cebu, Philippines. Her active role in the international sphere has allowed her to play leadership roles as a global youth leader, speaker, climate change policy negotiator, and educator. Her extensive public sector experience is in climate change, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, local government, and international relations with exposure to UN development.
Her career is marked by focus in sustainability as demonstrated by co-founding, managing, and serving as sustainability development director for global and local youth organizations and advocating and lobbying for policies in government and at climate change and sustainable development multilateral conferences. She was Co-Founder & Member of Executive Board of the International Youth Council which has provided educational resources & leadership opportunities to young global leaders. As Co-Founder, she developed and managed International Youth Council which assists young global leaders in developing entrepreneurial projects and campaigns to support sustainable development projects on a local, regional, and international level. The organization currently has 10,000 members in our social media networks and 30 chapters globally. She founded the Philippine Youth Climate Movement which has educated and mobilized 50,000 young Filipinos through visiting schools & universities all over the Philippines by raising climate change awareness and environmental activism. Through this she conceptualized and launched the “Climate Hero” award and recognized over 30 young Filipinos for their work on climate change all over the Philippines. PhilYCM also enhanced the role of Philippine youth in the UN Climate Change negotiations. She is also the founding president of Columbia University Coalition for Sustainable Development, which co-organized NY+20 a youth-led movement for action on sustainable development within the framework on the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) where a “Youth Statement” was established and lobbied for at Rio+20.
She worked as a Climate Change Consultant for the Philippine Senate Oversight Climate Change Committee, where she endorsed & lobbied for the implementation of Renewable Energy Act, Republic Act No. 9513 and campaigned for the enactment of climate change laws and environmental governance as Senator Legarda ran for Vice President of the Philippines. She has served as government delegate for the Philippines in the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference where she negotiated and lobbied to member states for to support sustainable development education. As negotiator, she worked with the youth constituency of UNFCCC to empower them into decision making platforms focused on having stronger representation in international climate negotiations by the Global South Youth and launched and drafted the "Official Youth Delegate Declaration" (OYD) by mobilizing official youth delegates and lobbying to heads of global delegations to sign the global agreement to support more OYD participation in official delegation.
She has worked as a consultant for South-South News, which works with UN agencies in helping South-South countries develop programs. Through this work she collaborated with key diplomatic UN officials in project development and organized high-level events with heads of states, first-ladies, ambassadors and other key public & private managers. She worked as consultant for Friendship Ambassadors Foundation, where she focused her efforts in organizing the 7th Annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations attended by hundreds of young global leaders. She was a consultant for the South South Awards Committee, honoring efforts of governments & civil society in their contribution towards the achievement of the UNMDGs. She was a journalist for UNICEF & South-South News covering news from the UN General Assembly & Clinton Global Initiative. She serves in the advisory council for World Women Global Council.
In addition to this work, she has moderated, chaired, and facilitated various UN development and sustainability related meetings endorsing the collaboration of government, public, and private organizations. This includes organizing the Youth Assembly at the UN, the South-South Awards during the General Assembly, Conference of Youth during the UN Climate Change Conference, and side events of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, including NY+20 and Rio+20 and Women’s Lives. These engagements provided an avenue for different stakeholders to be informed and have policy consultations and dialogues in the area of Millennium Development Goals, climate change, and sustainable development.
Esperanza has received awards on youth leadership and has been invited to keynote speak at international conferences, including the UN and TEDx to educate stakeholders in understanding the international process of climate change and sustainable development and speak on the importance of young people’s engagement in global affairs and environmental sustainability. She blogs on her blog writing stories of youth empowerment, sustainable development, climate change, social entrepreneurship, and renewable energy. Her work has been featured in several books and magazines including Unipro's "30 Top Filipinos Under 30," Swedish magazine, "Heroes of Today," and Humaneity's publication "Mobilizing Young People to Save the Planet" Financial Times, MSNBC, Elle, and Huffington Post. Her awards include Unipro's "30 top Filipinos under 30," "The Outstanding Filipinos of NY," "Women in Green Trailblazer Award," and "Care2 Impact Award."
She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture & Design at Academy of Art University in 2009 with a focus on sustainable design. She has studied renewable energy at Yale University and her post-baccalaureate in economics at Columbia University. She recently graduated from Columbia University's innovative Sustainability Management graduate program where she acquired and fine-tuned valuable training and skills in financial management, environmental science, quantitative analysis, research, and public policy. She lives with her husband, daughter, and is expecting another baby in 2016!
