Dr. John William Ashe (born 20 August 1954) is the ambassador to the United Nations for Antigua and Barbuda. His position was last confirmed on 3 May 2004. He is also his country’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has ministerial responsibility for WTO and sustainable development matters.[1]
Dr. Ashe was born in St. John's, Antigua. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, St. Mary's University, Halifax, Canada, and the Technical University of Nova Scotia at Halifax. He holds a Ph.D in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.[2][3]
From 1989 to 1995, he worked for his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations as Scientific Attaché, Counsellor and Minister Counsellor. Between 1995 and 2004, he was Antigua and Barbuda's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He served as Chairman of the thirteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which met at United Nations Headquarters on 11–22 April 2005. He also led negotiations on budgetary and administrative matters within the Conventions on biological diversity and desertification, the Basel Convention, and the Montreal Protocol, and served on the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).[1]
In April 2009, he was elected chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I20 Parties (Industrialized countries) under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), and was responsible for overseeing negotiations leading up to and including the final phase at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.[4]