Sabrina Shaw is Senior Policy Fellow at the Forum on Trade, Environment and the SDGs (TESS). Sabrina is a policy researcher passionate about addressing the challenges of sustainable development and climate change in an era where growth in demand for food, fuel, and fibre is placing pressure on our agricultural, water, and land systems as we navigate the pathway to a net zero carbon future.

After starting her career at the GATT/WTO Secretariat at the outset of negotiations on trade and environment, she has worked across five continents researching, writing, and lecturing on sustainable development issues for an international think tank (IISD); teaching environmental and trade policy; analysing the Brazilian economy and managing communications and public diplomacy at the Embassy of Canada in Brazil; and exploring standards along the global commodity supply chain for the IISD State of Sustainability Initiatives. Sabrina's career has been committed to operating in multicultural environments, managing stakeholder engagement, and enabling worthwhile dialogue between global actors, including through shepherding the text on trade and sustainable development in the Rio Conference outcomes and at the WTO.

Sabrina's doctoral research focused on the policy implications of agro-energy development in Thailand and the Mekong Region, with evidence from Brazil. She has worked in all areas of the trade and environment policy nexus from technical barriers to trade, fisheries, and agricultural subsidies to intellectual property rights and the telecommunications and services sectors, including WTO negotiations and dispute settlement resolution.

Her ambition is to contribute to advancing a sustainable vision of our common future on this planet and to get her family outdoors as much as possible.

Selected Publications

• Enders, A., Pickthall, A., Holubowskyj, C., Shaw, S. (2022). COP26 to COP27: TMT leading the way. Enders Analysis. 
• Shaw, S., Jai-In, S., and Juntopas, M. (2018). Fuelling transformation in the Mekong: Thailand's trade in agro-energy. In M. Ivan Lopez and J. Suryomenggolo (Eds.), Enviromental Resources Use and Challenges in Contemporary Southeast Asia (pp. 41-75). Springer Link. 
• Shaw, S. (2017). Championing Latin America in the G20. G7 and G20 Research Groups, and University of Toronto. 
• Shaw, S. (2017). From Hamburg to Buenos Aires: Education, innovation and the future of work. G7 and G20 Research Groups, and University of Toronto.
• Shaw, S. and Voora, V. (2016). Certification and beyond: Transforming the sugarcane sector. International Institute for Sustainable Development.