Research Agenda
The CISDL Climate Change Law Program engages in the study of the legal aspects of joint implementation of emissions reduction commitments, emissions trading and development of clean energy technology. International legal processes of interest include the agreements United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and relevant protocols, legal preparedness for climate change at the international and national levels (including adaptation and mitigation specifically in the context of developing countries) the Inter-American to promote clean and renewable energy, and others.
What we commonly call “climate change” is the human induced phenomenon of rising temperatures from the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, “global warming” is often used interchangeably with climate change. Climate change results in many other environmental impacts beyond temperature increases such as sea level rise, melting glaciers, reduced snow covers, extreme weather events, erratic precipitation, droughts and flooding. Large numbers of the global population already suffer or are in some way affected by the adverse effects of climate change, including its impact on agriculture, aquaculture, biological diversity, forestry, and health. Though the impacts of climate change are felt globally, its social, economic and environmental effects will be hardest on developing countries. Developing countries are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climatic change as their populations often depend significantly on natural resources but lack the capacity to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.
While some critical voices highlight uncertainties about the scientific basis for the cause and impacts of climate change, the majority of scientists are convinced that climate change is caused by the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. The natural greenhouse effect is a natural process, which enables life on earth. Certain gases in the atmosphere, mainly vapour, carbon dioxide and methane, block parts of the sun’s radiation from returning to space after it hits and is reflected off of the earth. This allows the earth’s temperature to be sufficiently warm for life to prosper.
Changes in the natural greenhouse effect resulting from human emissions of greenhouse gases is called the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere change the equilibrium between incoming radiation from the sun and outgoing radiation from the earth. The anthropogenic greenhouse effect increases temperatures by blocking more of the sun’s radiation from returning to space. Greenhouse gases which contribute to the largest share of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect are carbon dioxide (CO2 - for example from the combustion of fossil fuels) methane (NH4 - for example from livestock and waste management) and nitrous oxide (N2O - for example from fertilizers for agriculture).
The effects of climate change are not limited to environmental impacts. Climate change also affects human development: it poses a serious threat to socio-economic infrastructure and security, from coping with the aftermath of extreme weather events to the availability of fresh water for consumption. In recognition of those socio-economic impacts, the international community approaches climate change not only in terms of mitigation but also adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR).
Financing mechanisms for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, in particular under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, are constantly evolving, and include funds flexible market mechanisms and new incentive systems, such as “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries” (REDD).
Climate change mitigation and adaptation require proactive planning and significant investment. The international community has rallied together in the UNFCCC process to pledge finance, technology and capacity-building support for developing countries, which do not otherwise have the resources to act. However, donor and recipient countries encounter substantial barriers in implementing international commitments at the domestic level. Without enabling legal and institutional conditions, developing countries cannot realize the benefits of funding for adaptation, participation in the carbon market or REDD+, including promising co-benefits for sustainable socio-economic development.
To face these challenges, the CISDL Climate Change Program has recently engaged in the following initiatives:
1. Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change: CISDL Legal Working Paper Series
The CISDL and the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) launched a new Legal Working Paper Series on Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change that gathers 16 recent and updated works by CISDL Legal Researchers and IDLO Experts, addressing key issues for the UNFCCC negotiations and implementation. Due to the cross-cutting nature of climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance, these papers addressed a wide-range of topics, including: Foreign Investment Law and Climate Change; Trade and Investment Implications of Carbon Trading for Sustainable Development; Rights-Based Framework for Climate Finance; The Cancun Agreements and Legal Preparedness for Climate Change in Developing Countries; International Law and Climate Migrants; Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+); Sustainable Land Management; and Linking Climate Change with Biodiversity, among many others. The Legal Working Paper Series was launched at the COP16 to the UNFCCC, with wide distribution amongst country representatives, intergovernmental organizations and other international conference attendees.
2. CISDL Programme of Dialogues & Events in the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico
As part of the international meetings at COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico, CISDL co-organized with the IDLO and other consortium partners, four important and successful international events on emerging issues in climate change law and policy. The first event, ‘International Law & Policy for a Low Carbon Economy: Developing Sustainable & Equitable Legal Frameworks for the Global Low-Carbon Economy’, and the second, as an international experts panel on ‘Legal Preparedness for Climate Change’, was co-hosted with the UNEP, IDLO and UNDP, were recognised as official Side-Event to the UN FCCC COP 16, and extremely successful with excellent participation. The third event, on ‘Innovative Sustainable Instruments for the Green Economy: A Law & Policy Experts Panel on Strengthening Carbon Markets by Integrating the Environmental and Social Impacts of Trade & Investments’ was co-hosted with Sustainable Prosperity and other partners, as part of the ICTSD Symposium on these issues, held parallel to the COP 16. The final event, a roundtable on ‘Building Bridges, Filling Gaps: The Law & Policy Research Agenda on Climate Change Governance and Sustainable Development towards Rio+ 20’, brought together legal experts from across the world to set a new future legal research agenda. These events were extremely well attended and have resulted in ongoing relationships with attendees including international academics and researchers. CISDL published substantive reports on each of the Side-Events for public distribution on the CISDL and IDLO websites. Partners included leading legal practitioners, policy-makers and academic scholars from the World Bank, the University of Cambridge, the University of Chile, Taiwan University, the University of Warsaw, University of Hanoi, University of Montreal, McGill University, the University of Costa Rica, the University of Sydney, the University of Toronto, the University of Capetown and Yale University, as well as key collaborators from the Parliamentary Commission on Mexico’s Climate Change Act (Senate of Mexico), Government of Vietnam, Climate Change Facilitation Unit (Government of Zambia), ClimateFocus, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (Chile), the International Law Association, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sustainable Prosperity, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
3. Legal Preparedness for Climate Change: A New IDLO-CISDL E-learning Course
In May 2011, approximately 10 CISDL Lead Counsel and Associate Fellows assisted IDLO in launching a new e-learning course on legal aspects of climate change entitled Legal Preparedness for Climate Change. The e-learning course features four interactive Modules on: (1) Fundamentals of Legal Preparedness for Climate Change (2) Legal Preparedness for Climate Change Adaptation (3) Legal Preparedness for Climate Change Mitigation and Access to Climate Finance (4) Ensuring Climate Change Stakeholder Engagement. The e-learning course is designed to assist policy-makers, both lawyers and non-lawyers, interested in the international and domestic legal and institutional aspects of mitigation, adaptation, climate finance and stakeholder engagement, including common barriers and areas for reform. Participants have included representatives of government ministries and international agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, Universidad de Chile, Inter-American Development Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, World Bank and UNESCO.
4. Developing International Law on Climate Change: Legal Dialogues & Debates
The CISDL hosted and contributed to several academic conferences on climate policy in 2010-2011. Following up on COP16 in Cancun, in conjunction with the McGill Faculty of Law, the International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and others, the CISDL hosted “Climate Change & International Law: Recent Developments and Perspectives for the Future.” The experts panel, chaired by Prof. Richard Janda with presentations from CISDL Lead Counsel and Associate Fellows, as well as professors from other McGill departments, focused on the practical outcomes of COP16, and future prospects of international climate change law. The CISDL also co-organized a high-profile roundtable dialogue with prominent members of Canadian governmental and non-governmental development organizations (i.e. CIDA, IDRC, NJI) on Legal Empowerment of the Poor for Sustainable Livelihoods: The Canadian Agenda for Change at the University of Ottawa. CISDL Director, Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger chaired the roundtable discussion and an Associate Fellow Sarah Mason-Case presented as an expert panellist on The Green Economy, Climate Finance and Legal Empowerment of the Poor. In another instance, the CISDL chaired a roundtable discussion at a Université de Montréal international conference on climate change and food security entitled, Séminaire sur les instruments de gouvernance internationale des systèmes alimentaires, and attended by representatives of the World Trade Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
5. Legal Best Practices for Climate Change Publications
The CISDL also collaborated in the publication of several peer-reviewed articles in 2010-2011, “Interpreting ‘dangerous’ in the United Nations framework convention on climate change and the human rights of the Inuit” (2011) 11:1 Regional Environmental Change 265; the IDLO-CISDL-UNDP-UNEP publication on Overcoming Legal and Institutional Barriers to Effective Climate Policy, which will be launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn in June 2011. CISDL Associate Fellow Sarah Mason-Case and a team of legal researchers also developed a joint CISDL-IDLO Compendium of Legal Best Practices: Legal Preparedness for Climate Change, which identifies and highlights case studies of legal and institutional reforms for effectively addressing climate change challenges.
6. Climate Change and Human Rights
In January 2010, CISDL Legal Research Fellow Sébastien Jodoin released a Legal Working Paper entitled “Lost in Translation: Human Rights in the Climate Change Negotiations.” Building on these activities and this research, a new research and capacity-building project, “A Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change Policy-Making,” led by Mr. Jodoin, will develop an understanding of what a rights-based approach can contribute to climate change policy-making at international and domestic levels. By examining the implications of applying human rights obligations and principles in the context of the climate change regime, a rights-based approach to climate change policy-making would seek to ensure that responses to climate change protect, respect and fulfil human rights obligations and would apply throughout the various stages of such responses, including planning, funding, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The influence of human rights on policy-making would vary with the type of responsibility involved: while the responsibility to protect and respect human rights constrains policy-making, the responsibility to fulfil human rights supports and guides policy-making. This project will feed into a related project in the climate change programme on the “Legal Aspects of Climate Change Policy-Making” as well as on the CISDL’s capacity-building work and other activities within the UNFCCC process.