Trade House event at COP28: Trade and investment policy to advance the implementation of climate goals

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.

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).

Dr. Amelia U. Santos-Paulino is Chief of the Investment Research Section Chief of Investment Issues and Analysis Section at UNCTAD’s Division on Investment and Enterprise, and Deputy Editor of the Transnational Corporations Journal.

Previously, she was a Senior Economist at UNCTAD’s Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes Division. Before joining UNCTAD, she was Research Fellow and Project Director in the United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki, Professorial Research Fellow in the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies, and Senior Research Economist in the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.

She served as Senior Adviser of the Dominican Republic’s Government on International Trade and Investment for the negotiations of the US-DR-CAFTA Free Trade Agreement, amongst other full-time posts within the civil service and academia of the Dominican Republic. She has also held visiting posts at the University of California, Davis, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Fudan University in Shanghai, and the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo.

Her work has been published in journals including the Economic Journal, Cambridge Journal of Economics, and World Development, and has also edited books published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
She holds PhD and MA degrees in Economics from the University of Kent in the UK.

Karen is a strategic leader, partnership builder, and trusted advisor with a passion for supporting the missions of international organisations. With her expertise in international law, integrity, compliance, and good governance, she drives and implements objectives, fostering a culture of integrity, transparency, and collaboration across global teams.

Before joining IIU, Karen served as the International Director of Integrity, Compliance & Legal at SOS Children's Villages International, where she was part of the extended executive leadership team. In this role, she successfully led the integrity and asset safeguarding functions and strengthened good governance within the SOS Children's Villages Federation.

Prior to her tenure at SOS Children's Villages, she held various legal positions in the fields of anti-fraud, anti-corruption, anti-harassment, and international technical and scientific collaboration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

Karen holds several law degrees, including a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Legal Studies, First and Second State/Bar Examinations in Law, as well as an Executive Master in Public Administration.

Dr. Claudia Contreras joined UNCTAD in 2013.

Since 2020, she is an Economic Affairs Officer at the Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development Branch. Her work is focused on the interlinkages between climate change, environment, and trade and development.

Formerly, Claudia was a member of the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), and worked for the Chilean government on science, technology, and innovation policy.

Claudia holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Chile and graduated with an MSc in Management Research and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Oxford.

Cynthia Yue is the 2021-2022 UNA-USA Youth Observer to the United Nations.

A Tennessee native and a recent graduate of George Washington University, she has spent the past year connecting with young people across the United States about the issues that matter most to them and how they can harness their power for good. Yue has spent more than seven years as a volunteer leader at UNICEF USA and previously served on their National Council and as a UNICEF Global Youth Ambassador.

During her tenure as UN Youth Observer, she collaborated with Asian Mental Health Project on an initiative to encourage young people to communicate with their parents and elders about mental health and founded the Social Justice Series to hold conversations on advocacy, antiracism, and social justice — both locally and globally.

Yue is committed to tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges — from mental health and climate change to poverty and gender equality — to make the world a better place for all.