Stephan Contius is Special Advisor on SDGs at Foundations 20 (F20) since October 2022. He is also Special Advisor at the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development and member of the Imperatives Advisory Council of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Previously, Stephan Contius was Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Head of the Division for the United Nations, Developing Countries and Emerging Economies at the German Environment Ministry. There he was involved in the establishment of environment and climate change dialogues with Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and Thailand. He was German co-lead negotiator for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs and German chief negotiator for the UN summits on sustainable development in Johannesburg (2002) and in Rio de Janeiro (2012). His assignments at the Ministry also included G7 cooperation, green economy, prevention of air pollution, and project financing. He was seconded to the United Nations Development Programme in New York in 1990. For the EU he participated in the final negotiations on the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992). Mr Contius' academic background is law and political science. He was recipient of scholarships of the German National Academic Foundation.