Chris Whaley is a senior policy advisor with extensive experience of global agreements on climate change, biodiversity, chemicals, forestry, and sustainable development, working in the U.K., EU, internationally, as a diplomat and in the UN system.
At the U.K. Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, Mr. Whaley was Head of EU and International responsible for leadership and guidance on international environmental and sustainable development policy, including agriculture, food security, climate change, biodiversity, water, oceans, and sustainable consumption and production (2006-2015). He was a member of the U.K. team negotiating Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr. Whaley is a former STAP Secretary (2003-05 and 2017-2021).
From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Whaley was Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington DC, representing the U.K. on science, technology, energy and the environment with the U.S. administration, on Capitol Hill, with business, academia and non-governmental organizations.
In addition, Mr. Whaley has served as: Business Development Manager at Canary Wharf Limited, a privately-owned property development company redeveloping London's docklands; Visiting Fellow at the World Resources Institute; Visiting Foreign Scholar at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sponsored by the German Marshall Fund; and Chair of SEED, a non-governmental organization which supports sustainable development projects in developing countries.
Mr. Whaley holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a masters degree in mathematical economics from the University of Birmingham.
