Photo: (Left to right) Professor Simone Borg and Professor Carmel Borg awarded the UOM and the MQM by his Excellency Dr George Vella, President of the Republic. (Photo by DOI)
The University of Malta congratulates two of its members of staff, Prof. Simone Borg and Prof. Carmel Borg, who were honoured by their country on December 13 of last year.
Prof. Simone Borg LL.D, LL.M. (Int law), Ph.D (IMLI) is Malta鈥檚 Ambassador for Climate Action and chairs the National Climate Action Board. Prof. Borg is a resident academic at the University of Malta, a visiting lecturer at the IMO International Maritime Law Institute and has lectured at various universities abroad. She specialises in international law and policy relating to climate, ocean governance and biodiversity conservation. She chaired the Steering Committee for Malta鈥檚 National Post COVID Strategy and occupied various other senior roles at governmental level. She was the Occupational Health and Safety Authority鈥檚 first Chairperson.
Prof. Borg started her career as a diplomat with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, then headed the Legal and Multilateral Affairs department within the Ministry responsible for the environment where she drafted national environmental law and was Malta鈥檚 negotiator for various Environmental Multilateral Agreements, particularly those related to climate. She coordinated the transposition of the environmental acquis communautaire before Malta joined the European Union in 2004.
In 2017, during Malta鈥檚 Presidency of the Council of the European Union, she chaired the EU working party on climate negotiations. She is also very active in promoting climate action with stakeholders and civil society.
Prof. Borg is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental Law and its sub-committee on the oceans. She has authored various publications on both ocean governance and climate change.
Prof. Carmel Borg, a former Dean of the Faculty of Education and is the current Head of the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education, at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta. He is an academic with a strong presence in the public sphere, both locally and internationally. His professional work and his social activism focus on the intersection of education, democracy and social justice.
His three-decade struggle for equity in education has reached all corners of the world, with frequent keynote speeches, honorary visiting professorships, a string of collaborative research projects, and community-based initiatives.
The recipient of multiple awards, Prof. Borg has received accolades from heads of state and grassroots alike for his honest, meticulous, consistent, and fearless approach to analysing social inequities in education and beyond. In his critical engagement with societies and their education systems, he has regularly signposted action for inclusion, diversity, and equity in education.
In the past thirty years, always informed by a collective and dialogical approach to interacting with diverse others, Prof. Borg has researched, authored and co-authored academic as well as popular articles in areas that range from critical pedagogy to community-focused education. As a tireless promoter of local educational research, he edits the Malta Review of Education Research and the Education Research Monograph Series.
Prof. Borg has contributed to the formation of thousands of prospective and in-service educators, education administrators and policy makers. Several members of diverse communities have benefited from his critical-literacy programmes for personal and social change. Governments, education institutions and agencies have solicited his wide-ranging expertise.
