Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Zac Goldsmith edited the Ecologist Magazine for a decade for which he received Mikhail Gorbachev’s Global Green Award for ‘International Environmental Leadership’.

Zac was the MP for Richmond Park from 2010 – 2019, with six months out of office in 2016 when he resigned in protest against the Government’s decision to expand Heathrow airport. As a backbench MP, Zac won numerous awards for his environmental campaigns in Parliament.

In 2016 he stood as the Conservative Party’s candidate in the London Mayoral election. He received just under a million votes, but lost the election to Labour.

In March 2018, he was asked by the Government to help coordinate the international illegal wildlife trade conference which was held in London that year.

In 2019, Zac was appointed as a Minister attending Cabinet with responsibility for among other things climate and the environment. He remained a Minister until June 2023 when he resigned citing the Government’s increasing apathy in the face of the environmental and climate crisis.

In 2022 Colombian President Ivan Duque awarded Zac the Order of Boyacá, the highest honour that can be given to a non Colombian national, for his international environmental leadership. In the same year Zac was awarded the Order of the Etoile Équatoriale by Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba in recognition of his international environmental leadership.