Tasneem Essop

Who is Tasneem Essop?

Tasneem Essop, former Provincial Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development in the Western Cape and was responsible for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning and the Department of Economic Development, as well as the Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, Wesgro and the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board, CapeNature.

As of 25 September 2008, Ms. Essop is employed by World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa as International Climate Policy Advocate. Essop focuses on WWF’s Global Climate Deal Network Initiative. The aim of the Initiative is to secure a binding multilateral agreement, by the end of 2009 that sets the world on a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050

Prior to 1994 she was an anti-Apartheid activist involved in youth, union and gender organisations. An educator by profession, she started her career in 1985, teaching English, History and Guidance at Glendale Senior Secondary in Mitchell’s Plain, Western Cape.

Even though her teaching career appeared to be brief, she left the secondary school in 1988, her love for education continued to play a dominant role in her career.