Dr. Chantal Line Carpentier currently serves as Head, Trade, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development after serving 7 years as Chief, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) New York office of the Secretary-General. Prior to 2014, as Major Groups Coordinator for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Division for Sustainable Development, she facilitated the engagement of and consultation with non-State actors (NGOs, women’s groups, business and industry, etc.) globally in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) negotiations and the UN Rio+20 Conference. She also served as focal point for food security and sustainable agriculture and sustainable consumption and production (SCP) where she successfully supported the negotiations of the 10 Year Framework of Program on SCP, now SDG12 (2007-2010).

Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked as Head, Environment, Economy and Trade Division of the North American Free Trade Agreement Commission for Environmental Cooperation (2000-2007), as policy analyst for the Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture (1998-2000) and as postdoctoral fellow for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in the Brazilian Amazon (1996-1998).

Dr. Carpentier has consulted to the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and obtained competitive grants from the United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Canada, Environmental Defense Fund and the European Union.
She has co-authored a book on Ethical Investing and regularly publishes journal articles, book chapters and Secretary-General reports.

Dr. Carpentier obtained her PhD. in Agricultural and Environmental Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as both her MSc. and BSc. in Agriculture Economics from McGill University.

Born in Canada, Dr. Carpentier is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and possesses a strong knowledge of Mandarin. She competes in ultramarathon, ironmen and is second dan black belt.