Founding President
Alfred Brownell is an internationally recognized environmental rights activist and lawyer from Liberia. He is the founding president of Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef), which emboldens climate defenders to challenge the corporate and governmental drivers of climate change, knowing that lawyers will have their backs.
Prior to starting CliDef, Brownell advocated for more than two decades to protect the environment and human rights in West Africa and to empower Liberians and West Africans victimized by resource exploitation. He co-founded and headed the public interest law and non-governmental environmental rights organization, Green Advocates International. There, Brownell pioneered a framework for environmental law within Liberia’s legal system. His efforts have led to significant successes, including the temporary protection of six million acres of forest from development by palm oil companies.
Today, Brownell is also the co-founder and lead campaigner for two significant campaigns across Africa to enhance environmental law and climate governance. This includes the African Climate Platform, which could set a major precedent on the continent on the legal obligations of African States to combat climate change. He also leads a campaign with the Environmental Rights Africa Initiative, which seeks to adopt a binding regional legal treaty that would standardize and uphold environmental protections throughout Africa.
Brownell has held leadership roles in several other regional and thematic coalitions, including the West African Frontline Grassroots Defenders Directory, the Alliance for Rural Democracy, the Mano River Union Civil Society Natural Resources Rights and Governance Platform, and the Natural Resources Women’s Platform.
In 2016, Brownell’s advocacy in Liberia led to backlash and targeting of him and his family. Following repeated death threats, Brownell was forced to flee his home country. He is living with his family in the United States in temporary exile. In 2019, Brownell won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the “Green Nobel,” which honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists.
In 2026, he was honored with the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy for his groundbreaking contributions to the progressive development of environmental law and decades of leadership advancing environmental justice, climate action, and environmental governance around the world.
He has also served as the Robert F. Drinan, J.J., Chair in Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center and the Tom and Andi Bernstein Human Rights Fellow and Visiting Research Scholar at Yale Law School.