Kai-Uwe Schmidt is the Carbon Finance-Assist (CF-Assist) Team Leader in the World Bank Institute Climate Change Practice. As CF-Assist Team Leader, Kai-Uwe leads the Innovation in Carbon Finance and Cities and Climate Change programs, respectively. The main objective of work under the CF-Assist program is to create capacity in partner countries to engage in the carbon market in alignment with their sustainable development goals. Kai-Uwe joined the World Bank in February 2010 from the United Nations, where he had served as Senior Programme Officer in the UN Sectretary General’s Climate Change Support Team. His previous assignments include the UNFCCC Secretariat, where he worked in various positions, including support to the intergovernmental negotiations on market mechanism and directing, untill December 2008, support to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in his role as Secretary to the CDM Executive Board. He brings more than 20 years of professional experience to the table. Kai-Uwe is a German national, and holds both Master and Bachelor degrees from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in Macroeconomics and Finance, and Political Economy, respectively.