Aira Kalela has been a senior adviser to the former Finnish president Tarja Halonen since 2013. In the 1984–2010 period, she was the director general at the Ministry of the Environment; in 2015, she was the EU’s lead negotiator on climate change and gender equality for the Paris Agreement; in 1989, she was one of the principal negotiators on the UN decision launching the sustainable development process. Ms Kalela participated in the 1992 Rio Summit, the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, and the Rio+20 Summit.