John Carstensen is Head of Profession for Climate and Environment in DFID. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of sustainable development, environment and climate change from Government, United Nations and NGO perspectives. He is Chairman of the OECD/DAC ENVIRONET. He was CEO of Society for the Environment, an umbrella body for UK’s professional bodies for environmental professionals that operates Chartered Environmentalists and was Chief Operating Officer for INTRAC, a UK based civil society capacity development organisation. He worked for nine years for UNEP and he has delivered poverty-oriented environment programmes in Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam for the Danish Government. He was Private Secretary to the Danish Environment and Energy Minister and led international negotiations to protect the Ozone Layer as Chair of the Montreal Protocol working group from 1992 to 1995.