Trade House event at COP28: Mitigating climate change with trade-related regulations

Chantal Line Carpentier joined UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC) in 2014, after serving as Chief, UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General. She brings to the Branch over 25 years of work experience in international trade, and environmental and agro-economics.

Prior to working with UNCTAD, she supported the Commission on Sustainable Development and served as Major Groups (of non-State actors) coordinator for the UN Rio+20 Conference and the SDGs negotiations at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). She also supported the sustainable consumption and production and sustainable agriculture negotiations.

As Head of the North American Free Trade Agreement Commission for Environmental Cooperations, she lead work on the nexus of environment, economy, and trade. She also served as Agro-environmental Policy Analyst for Winrock International, and post-Doctoral fellow/Brazil office manager for the International Food Policy Research Institute.

She has an extensive list of publications on sustainable agriculture, trade and environment, sustainable consumption and production, financing for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, global value chains, micro, small and medium enterprises, and economic empowerment of women.

She obtained a PhD. in Agro-Environmental Economics from Virginia Technology and MSc. and BSc. from McGill University.

Miho Shirotori is the Acting Director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC) of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Miho also leads a team of experts that assess how trade agreements, trade in services, and the creative economy contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic diversification.

Her expertise includes “equitable” trade in agriculture for least developed countries, low-income countries, and net food-importing developing countries.

Miho represents UNCTAD in global conferences and various inter-agency activities, including the UN inter-agency task force that monitors the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Plan for the Financing for Development.

Aik Hoe Lim is Director of the Trade and Environment Division at the World Trade Organization and leads its work on environmental sustainability, climate change and trade, as well as on the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. In this role, he has strengthened WTO's partnership with UNEP as well as other international environmental organizations. He led the establishment of WTO's Trade and Environment Week, which is now an annual flagship event for the organization. He joined the WTO in 1999 and served in the External Relations Division, the Director-General's Cabinet and the Trade in Services Division. He was previously Counsellor to two WTO Director-Generals, Advisor to the Director‑General's Consultative Group, and Secretary to WTO committees, working groups and negotiating bodies on services trade and domestic regulation. He represents the WTO in the UN Environmental Management Group and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook.  Some of his publications include contributions to the "Research Handbook on Climate Change and Trade Law" (2017); "Win-Win: How International Trade Can Help Meet the Sustainable Development Goals" (2017); and an edited volume on "WTO Domestic Regulation and Services Trade" (2014).

Mr. Andrey Slepnev took office as the Member of the Board – Minister for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission for the second time on 3 March, 2020.

He began his career in the insurance sector, and it took him a few years to make strides from the project manager toward the Director General of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers. He graduated Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod with a degree in Applied Mathematics, and M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University with a Law degree.

Mr. Slepnev was born on September 13, 1969 in the town of Bor, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russian Federation. He is married and has three children.

• From May 2018 to February 2020, he served as the Director General of Russian Export Center, JSC.
• From February 2016 to April 2018, Mr. Slepnev held the positions of Aide to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government of the Russian Federation – Director of the Department for Project Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation.
• From February 2012 to January 2016, he held his first term as the Member of the Board – Minister for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
• From 2009 to 2012 Mr. Slepnev acted as the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. Previously, in 2007, he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
• From 2005 to 2007, he headed the Department for Supporting Priority National Projects of the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation.
• From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Slepnev acted as the Deputy Director General of the Union called "Coordinating Council of Employers' Associations of Russia".

Secretary for International Affairs - State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Former Secretary for Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Economy of Brazil and Brazil's senior director for the New Development Bank (NDB) and for the Latin American Development Bank (CAF).

He served as Brazil's alternate governor for the Inter-American Development Bank and for FONPLATA Development Bank. Held positions as senior advisor to the World Bank, UNCTAD, the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil and the International Chamber of Commerce. Graduated in Chemical Engineer, holds a doctorate in economics from Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo and is one of the coordinators of the Brazilian Chair at the World Trade Organization.

Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, LL.M, is IISD's Interim Co-President and Co-CEO, serving alongside Martha Casey in this role. Nathalie is also IISD’s Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe.
Nathalie leads major new initiatives across IISD’s programs, is the institute’s senior leader in Europe, and heads IISD’s Economic Law and Policy program. She is based out of IISD’s office in Geneva, Switzerland, and is IISD Europe’s representative in the Think Sustainable Europe network of think tanks.

Nathalie has extensive legal, policy, and training experience in the areas of public and private international law, trade, investment, sustainable development, human rights, international environmental law, and international dispute settlement. She has authored and edited several peer-reviewed publications and collections covering various facets of international law.

Additionally, Nathalie is a visiting professor on international investment law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and is the Vice-Chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Team of Specialists on Environmental, Social and Governance Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in the Circular Economy.

Before joining IISD in 2009, Nathalie served as Managing Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Geneva, after previously being based out of CIEL’s Washington, D.C. office. Earlier, she was a fellow at the International Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center and worked in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a legal reform project of the United Nations Development Programme. She previously worked at an Australian law firm and at the Swiss Department of Justice in the Section for International Law. In Switzerland, Nathalie is admitted to the Bar of Basel.

She is based in Geneva and is fluent in English, German, and French.

Dr. Deere Birkbeck is Director of the Forum on Trade, Environment and the SDGs (TESS), a partnership of the Geneva Graduate Institute and UNEP, where she leads the initiative’s work to foster inclusive international cooperation on trade and sustainability. Her recent research focuses on climate change and trade, where notably she has championed the idea of an inclusive Trade Ministers Coalition on Climate, as well as the global governance of plastics and plastic pollution. She is also an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. Dr. Deere Birkbeck is the founder and Board Chair of Global Policy Reporting, a Geneva-based non-profit organisation dedicated to open access and independent news reporting, which houses Health Policy Watch (launched in 2019) and Intellectual Property Watch for the prior 15 years. She also served as an Assistant Director at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York where she was responsible for grantmaking on intellectual property, trade and sustainable development. Previously, she worked for the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and the Overseas Development Council.