Hugh is an academic with an illustrious resume having been elected by the COP to serve as the member for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the UNFCCC, where his work made the CDM more accessible to the Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Hugh served as Chair of the Executive Board, Chair of the Methodologies Panel and Chair of the Small-Scale Working Group, sub-committees of the Executive Board, and was re-elected to the Executive Board to serve as the Member for SIDS