Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck is the Founder and Executive Director of the Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS), housed at the Geneva Graduate Institute. TESS was launched to support the multilateral dialogue, inclusive international cooperation, and policy action necessary to align trade and trade policies with the urgent need for environmental action, sustainable development, and just transitions. Carolyn has been active for over 25 years in providing thought leadership and fostering inclusive dialogue on a more sustainable and equitable global economy, engaging with a broad diversity of governments, stakeholders, and experts.

In 2022, Carolyn played a leading role in the creation of the Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate, which brings together a diverse group of 64 ministers, co-led by the trade ministers of Ecuador, the European Union, Kenya, and New Zealand. Carolyn is also an advisor to the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastics Pollution, which brings together over 50 ministers of environment, for which TESS has been engaged by the co-chairs Rwanda and Norway to support the Secretariat. In addition, Carolyn participates in the Advisory Group of the Business Coalition for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty.

Carolyn is the Founder and Board Chair of Global Policy Reporting, a Geneva-based non-profit organization dedicated to open access, independent, and professional news reporting, which houses Health Policy Watch (launched in 2019) and Intellectual Property Watch (active from 2004–2019). 

She previously worked at the University of Oxford’s Global Economic Governance Programme, based at the Blavatnik School of Government, conducting research on developing countries and development issues in global economic governance. She has also been an Assistant Director at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York where she was responsible for grantmaking in the “Global Inclusion” theme on global policymaking on topics ranging from trade and intellectual property to sustainability, health, and development. In Washington, D.C., she worked as the Manager of the Congressional Staff Forum on International Development at the Overseas Development Council.

Carolyn has been a consultant to a range of non-governmental and international organizations, including UNEP, UNCTAD, UNDP's Office of the Human Development Report, the South Centre, the Open Society Institute, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Chatham House, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. She has served on a number of advisory groups and boards, and has led or participated in collaborative research projects on issues ranging from public health and trade; the climate crisis and global economic governance; human rights and trade; plastic pollution and the transformation of the plastics economy; and remaking the global trading system for a sustainable future.

Alongside a range of short policy-related publications, Carolyn is the author of number of reports and books published by leading academic publishers, including Greening International Trade: Pathways Forward (UNEP & TESS, 2021), The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): A Reference Guide (Edward Elgar Press, 2016), and The Implementation Game: The TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press 2009, paperback 2011). She is also the editor of Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development: Perspectives and Priorities from Developing Countries (Cambridge University Press 2011) and the co-editor (with Dan Esty) of Greening the Americas: NAFTA’s Lessons for Hemispheric Trade (MIT Press 2002).

Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck holds a DPhil in International Relations (University College, Oxford), an MA in International Relations (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies) and an undergraduate degree in Political Economy from the University of Sydney.

Selected Publications

• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2023). Global rules to end plastic pollution. One Earth, Voices Article.
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2023). Trade Ministers’ Coalition seeks to put climate action at the heart of global trade policies. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
• Deere Birkbeck, C., Barrowclough, D., Sugathan, M., Bellmann, C., and Souzo Campos Rodrigues, L. (2023). Trends in trade flows across the life cycle of plastics: Preliminary review. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Peter Tilsted, J., Bauer, F., Deere Birkbeck, C., Skovgaard, J., and Rootzén, J. (2023). Ending fossil-based growth: Confronting the political economy of petrochemical plastics. One Earth.
• Bellmann, C., Deere Birkbeck, C., Kettunen, M., and Sugathan, M. (2022). Trade and environment at the World Trade Organization: State of play and entry points. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2022).Greening aid for trade and sustainable development: Financing a just and fair transition to sustainable trade. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2022). How can we harness aid for trade for a just transition to sustainable trade? Trade for Development News.
• Deere Birkbeck, C., Nielsen, T., and Bauer, F. (2022). Petrochemicals and climate change governance: Powerful fossil fuel lock-ins and policy options. Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Lund University, and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
• Deere Birkbeck, C., Sugathan, M., and Ardila Eraso, S. (2022).The WTO Dialogue on Plastics Pollution: Overview and state of play. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Sugathan, M., Deere Birkbeck, C., and Bellmann, C. (2022). Déchets plastiques: Réglementer le commerce international. La Vie économique. 
• Vaca Eyzaguirre, C. and Deere Birkbeck, C. (2022). Plastic pollution and trade across the life cycle of plastics: Options for amending the Harmonized System to improve transparency. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2021). Delivering for the environment at MC12 prospects to enhance trade cooperation on environmental challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2021). Greening international trade: Pathways forward. Global Governance Centre and Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2021). How can the WTO and its Ministerial Conference in 2021 be used to support climate action? One Earth.
• Deere Birkbeck, C. (2021). Trade ministers must pull their weight on climate action. Chatham House.
• Deere Birkbeck, C., Antoni E., Kettunen, M., & Wang J. (2021). Biodiversity and international trade policy primer: How does nature fit in the sustainable trade agenda? UNEP, UKRI GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub, UNEP, and Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS).
• Schneider-Petsinger, M., Deere Birkbeck, C., Lee, B., Zerk, J., & Gasiorek, M. (2021). Re-imagining trade for domestic and foreign policy. Chatham House.

Books  

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): A Reference Guide (Edward Elgar Press, 2016)

Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development: Perspectives and Priorities from Developing Countries (editor, Cambridge University Press 2011)

The Implementation Game: The TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press 2009, paperback 2011). 

Greening the Americas: NAFTA’s Lessons for Hemispheric Trade (co-edited with Daniel Esty, MIT Press 2002).