Having graduated in economics, I became disillusioned working for a large transnational corporation, and after attempts to find work with an environmental organisation, I changed career, becoming a town planner in local government. I later qualified as a landscape architect, and worked in a New Town. While my family was growing up I ran a small consultancy in landscape design and planning, with mostly public sector clients, working on habitat creation, landscape management and heritage landscape conservation. In 1997 I felt in need of a new challenge, and undertook a part-time Masters in International Rural Development at Birmingham University, In 2001 I obtained a job with Practical Action, an international NGO working to reduce poverty through enabling access to appropriate technology. I worked first on rural development issues, and by 2004 became aware that climate change was affecting the communities we worked with. Since then I have worked on supporting communities to adapt to climate change, through projects and programmes and advocacy at the national and international level. Since 2005 I have followed closely the negotiations at the UNFCCC. I became a trustee of Living Witness in 2010. I joined Quakers in 2000, and am a member of Bradford-on-Avon Local Meeting.