In January 1990 during an address to the Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival held in Moscow, President Mikhail Gorbachev brought up the idea for an organization that would apply the medical emergency response model of the International Committee of the Red Cross to ecological issues and expedite solutions to environmental problems that transcend national boundaries.
Developing this idea, delegates at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (June 1992) approached Mikhail Gorbachev (the former President of the USSR), mandating him to create and launch this organisation. At the same time Swiss National Council MP, Roland Wiederkehr founded a ‘World Green Cross' with the same objective. The organisations merged in 1993 to form Green Cross International.
Green Cross International (GCI) was formally launched in Kyoto, on the 18th of April 1993. Upon the invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev, many renowned figures joined its
Board of Directors and The Honorary Board.
In order to gain credibility, it was important that Green Cross International establish national affiliates, which would enjoy the autonomy to conduct their own projects, whilst also participating in at least one international programme.
The first set of National Organisations (GCNOs) formally joined GCI in The Hague, in the Spring of 1994. These included Japan (President Shoo Iwasaki), The Netherlands (President Awraham Soetendorp), the Russian Federation (President Nikita Moiseev), Switzerland (President Donald Hess), and the United States (President Diane Meyer Simon).
To date, Green Cross International is represented in 30 countries around the world. Please click here to learn more about the Green Cross Network of National Offices .
Green Cross International has been granted consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and with UNESCO. GCI is also an admitted observer organisation with the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and cooperates directly with the UNEP/OCHA Environmental Emergencies Section, UN-HABITAT and other international organisations.
