Petros Kokkalis has been actively involved in public service for the past 25 years, developing social innovation focused on human and sustainable development. In 2019 he was elected MEP with the Progressive Alliance – Syriza ticket, representing Kosmos: an association seeking to put the SDGs in the heart of the European policy making, and aiming at the empowerment and engagement of civil society and all stakeholders to take bottom-up action for implementing the European Green Deal and the SDGs. He is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and a substitute member of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG), the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), and the Committee on Fisheries (PECH). In the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development he is the co-chair of the SDGs Working Group. He studied Modern History at the University of Hampshire, and earned his master’s degree in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is co-founder and secretary of the non-governmental environmental Organization Earth (2009 – present) whose work on environmental awareness and education for sustainable development has been awarded by the International Union for the Protection of the Environment (IUCN). He was elected and served as the Vice-Mayor responsible for economic development and climate change in the municipality of Piraeus (2014 – 2019), where he promoted sustainable entrepreneurship and support of start-ups in the maritime economy. The European Commission has acknowledged its work, awarding the Blue Growth Piraeus initiative at the European Entrepreneurship Promotion Competition 2018. During his term of office he led the humanitarian support during the Refugee Crisis in the period 2015-2016 and served as the President of the Municipal Council for Refugees.