Peter Govindasamy is Director-General (Climate Negotiations) in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry.  He has concurrent appointments as the Chief Negotiator for the Pacific Alliance-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (PASFTA) and Dean (MTI Academy).   In 2023, he was a Senior Adviser to the UAE’s Presidency of COP28. Earlier, at the request of the UK Presidency, he co-facilitated the Ministerial Decision on the Impacts of Response Measures during COP26 in Glasgow.  Most recently in June 2024, Peter co-chaired the negotiating track pertaining to the interlinkages between the UNFCCC’s Technology and Finance Mechanisms. He is scheduled to co-chair this negotiating track during COP29 in Baku in Nov 2024.  He was also the co-Chair and member of the Katowice Committee of Experts on Response Measures since its establishment in 2018.

Peter is additionally an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (Singapore), and a Member of the Remaking the Global Trade Project (by Yale University and Fletcher School of Diplomacy and Law) and Member of the World Economic Forum Climate Trade Zero initiative.  He is also a member of the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism Panel.

Further to environment, energy, and sustainable development matters, Peter has extensive experience in international relations, and international trade and investment negotiations.   Earlier in his career, he was lead negotiator in a variety of areas such as trade in services, trade in goods,    investment, and government procurement. As Director of MTI’s International Trade Cluster (2009 to 2019), he oversaw Singapore’s engagement at the WTO, Ministerial Conferences, and concluded Investment Guarantee Agreements with Iran and Colombia, and the FTA with the GCC. He has also chaired the ASEAN-India FTA (services) negotiations.

Peter had two stints at the Singapore Permanent Mission in Geneva, as First Secretary (1995-98) and Counsellor (2003-09). In addition to UN and WTO matters, Peter handled issues pertaining to Singapore’s bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican.  Peter chaired the negotiations on Domestic Regulations in the context of the Doha Round from 2005 to 2009. The text he circulated served as a basis for Joint Statement Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation in Dec 2021.

Prior to joining MTI, Peter worked at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  At the Foreign Ministry, he handled matters pertaining to the European Union, the Benelux countries, Denmark, Italy and the Vatican, and multilateral issues relating to the UN, IAEA, ILO, WHO, WIPO and WTO.

Peter holds a LLM (with Distinction) in international commercial law from the University of Nottingham on the Raffles-Chevening Scholarship.

Peter was awarded the Public Administration medal (Silver) in August 2021 for contributions made to Singapore in international negotiations.

Dr Aisha Al-Sarihi is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute. Dr Al-Sarihi’s areas of research expertise and interest include clean energy policy and climate economics, policies and governance, with a focus on the Arab region. Following her PhD,  she was a research officer at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Middle East Centre. She was also a former visiting scholar at Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Before joining MEI, Dr Al-Sarihi was a research associate in the Climate and Environment Program at King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC). She holds a PhD from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London and a MSc and a BSc, with distinction, in environmental science from Sultan Qaboos University.