Leverhulme Lecture & Distinguished Experts Dialogue
Thursday 4 November 2020 | 17:00 UK | 12:00 New York
Complex, inter-linked ‘wicked problems’ of climate change, drought and hunger; terrestrial and marine ecosystem collapse and species extinction; and world health pandemics, among others, have been signaled by scientists and civil society, with increasing urgency, for decades.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global agenda for the achievement of international treaty obligations but also economic recovery coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Governments are spending billions on pandemic recovery. How could this finance foster and not frustrate global sustainability?
Join us for an insightful event chaired by Professor Stephen J. Toope, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge and hosted by Professor Diane Coyle, Co-Director, Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
Public Lecture provided will be provided by Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge, Senior Director, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), Executive Secretary, UNFCCC CoP26 Climate Law and Governance Initiative, and Full Professor of Law, School of Environment, Entrepreneurship & Development, University of Waterloo
This Leverhulme Lecture precedes a Distinguished Experts Dialogue among leading international jurists and academics, and renowned finance and public policy experts, to share insights and identify new directions for post-pandemic recovery.
Full Recording
The full program is available here: Final Draft Programme – Univ Cambridge – Public Leverhulme Lecture & Dist Experts Dialogue – 04 Nov 2020
Chair
Professor Stephen J. Toope, OC, LLD, PhD (Cambridge), AB (Harvard), BCL/LLB(McGill), Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge, is a distinguished scholar and academic leader. His academic interests lie in international law, human rights, international environmental law, and international legal theory. His books include Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account and After the Paris Attacks: Responses in Canada, Europe, and Around the Globe; his articles regularly feature in leading international journals. He served as the Chair and Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances; Former Chair of the Board of Universities Canada and President of Canada’s Federation for the humanities and Social Sciences; Previous consultant to Canada’s Department of Foreign Affair and International Trade, the Canadian International Development Agency, and many other United Nations’ agencies. Among the distinctions he has received are the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and the John Read Medal of the Canadian Council of International Law.
Opening
Professor Diane Coyle, CBE, LLD, PhD (Harvard), BA (Oxford), Professor Diane Coyle is the inaugural Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Diane co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity, and has been a government adviser on economic policy, including throughout the covid-19 pandemic. Her latest book, ‘Markets, State and People – Economics for Public Policy’ examines how societies reach decisions about the use and allocation of economic resources. Diane is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, an expert adviser to the National Infrastructure Commission, and Senior Independent Member of the ESRC Council. She has served in public service roles including as Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, member of the Competition Commission, of the Migration Advisory Committee and of the Natural Capital Committee. Diane was Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester until March 2018 and was awarded a CBE for her contribution to the public understanding of economics in the 2018 New Year Honours.
Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor
Professor Cordonier Segger, DPhil (Oxon), MEM (Yale), BCL&LLB (McGill), BA Hons (Carl/UVic), FRSA is Leverhulme Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge; Senior Director, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law; Executive Secretary, UNFCCC CoP26 Climate Law & Governance Initiative and an award-winning expert jurist and professor of law and governance on sustainable development. Author/editor of 22 books, including Sustainable Development Law (OUP) and Sustainable Development in International Courts and Tribunals (Routledge); also the Cambridge University Press Series on Sustainable Development Treaty Implementation; and over 80 papers, Professor Cordonier Segger also serves on the editorial boards of five law journals. She is a full professor of international law at the University of Waterloo, Canada; chairs several experts commissions and the Future Board of Bit Bio an award-winning Cambridge biomedical firm; and as former senior civil servant, International Development Law Organization senior legal expert; and general counsel to UN and IUCN treaties, advises countries on implementing climate change, biodiversity, natural resources, trade and investment accords related to sustainable development. She is also Fellow in Law / LLM Director of Studies in Lucy Cavendish College; Visiting Professor of Bennett Institute for Public Policy; co-founding Advisor and Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG) and the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Change Engagement (CCCE); Affiliated Fellow of Lauterpacht Centre for International Law; and Laureate, Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Prize, HE Judge CG Weeramantry International Justice Award and other honours.
Distinguished Experts Dialogue
Professor David Boyd, PhD (UBC), JD (Toronto), BCom (Alberta), Associate Professor of law, policy, and sustainability, University of British Columbia, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, is an environmental lawyer and internationally renowned expert on human rights and the environment. His primary focus is identifying laws and policies that accelerate the transition to an ecologically sustainable and just future. He authored nine books including The Rights of Nature, The Optimistic Environmentalist, Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws and Policies and published over 100 reports and articles. He was the executive director of Ecojustice, appearing before the Supreme court of Canada; special advisor on sustainability for the Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Advised a number of governments of environmental, constitutional and human rights policy. He co-chaired Vancouver’s effort to become the world’s greenest city by 2020 and is an expert advisor for the UN’s Harmony with Nature Initiative, member of ELAW and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide.
The Rt. Hon. Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill CVO, MA, LlB (Cambridge), former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, Honorary Professor of Law, University College London, Centre for Law and Environment, Visiting Professor, University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, Associate Member, Landmark Chambers, is a leading jurist in the field of environment law; and has spoken at conferences in many parts of the world. From 2005 he served as a member of a UNEP taskforce on judicial training, and acted as co-chair of an international judicial group which oversaw the preparation of the UNEP Judicial Handbook on Environmental Law. He was a founder member and first secretary of the EU Forum of Judges for the Environment; and a founder member of the Global Judges’ Institute on the Environment. He is Honorary President of the UK Environmental Law Association. Lord Carnwath had a distinguished career at the Bar, including a period as Attorney-General to HRH the Prince of Wales (for which he was made a Companion of the Victorian Order). In 1994 he became a judge of the High Court and later Court of Appeal, before his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2012. He also served (1998-2001) as Chairman of the Law Commission for England and Wales, and (2005-2012) as the first Senior President of Tribunals (leading the reform of the specialist tribunal system in the UK).
The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FRS FREng, Julia King, Vice Chair of the Committee on Climate Change and Chair of the Adaptation Committee; Chair of The Carbon Trust; Crossbench Peer; Member of the House of Lords European Select Committee; is a world leader in both industry and academia with a key focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, and the low carbon economy. She is non-executive director of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, a Council member of Innovate UK, and Sector Champion for the Offshore Wind Sector Deal – part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy. She led the King Review on decarbonising road transport for the Chancellor of the Exchequer which continues to be part of the UK’s policy framework to reduce emissions for transport as part of the Climate Change Act. She was awarded a DBE for services to higher education and technology
Douglas Leys, QC, LLB Hons (University of the West Indies) General Counsel, Green Climate Fund, former Solicitor General, Government of Jamaica, and General Counsel, Caribbean Development Bank, is a pre-eminent practitioner in concerning privatization of public assets and cross-border issues related to international investments. He was conferred with the appointment of Queen’s Counsel and is the recipient of a Fulbright award, (the Hubert Humphrey Fellow for Jamaica 1996). This post-graduate fellowship was in the area of International Financial Law and Securities Regulation at American and Georgetown Universities in Washington DC. He completed his professional attachment at the Inter-American Investment Corporation (now (IDB Invest) of the Inter-American Development Bank. Previously he was the lead counsel to the Jamaican Government in structuring and negotiating Jamaica’s inaugural Eurobond issue and subsequent issues on the international capital markets.
Wendy J. Miles, QC, LLM (Canterbury), BA LLB (Canterbury), Barrister and Solicitor, Twenty Essex, Vice President of the ICC Court of Arbitration, ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, Co-Chair of the task force on Arbitration of Climate Change Related Disputes, is a specialist in international arbitration and dispute resolution with a focus on private and public international law. She regularly publishes articles in prominent international law journals, often focusing on in the link between Climate Change, Policy and Finance. She has advised a wide range of multinationals, including corporates, sovereign States, State Entities and multilateral State organisations. She acts as global coordinating counsel for major corporates in relation to climate change transition, disclosure, reporting, compliance and investment.
Russell Picot, MA (Cambridge), Senior Associate, University of Cambridge, Institute of Sustainability Leadership, Honorary Professor, Durham University, Business School, Chair of the Trustee board of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Fund. He has a particular interest in public policy and the intersection between the private sector and Climate change. He was a co-author of the Sustainable Development Goals Disclosure Recommendations; Chair of the IIGCC Investor Practices Programme; Special Advisor to the Financial Stability Board’s Climate-related Financial Disclosures Task Force; Willis Towers Watson’s UK DC Master Trust Board; Co-chair of the FSB’s Enhanced Disclosure Task Force and is a Special Advisor to the Financial Stability Board’s Climate-related Financial Disclosures Task Force. He supported the HRH The Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability project since its inception in 2004 and is an ambassador for the International Integrated Reporting Council and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Dame Fiona Reynolds, CBE, DBE, MA (Cambridge), MPhil (Cambridge), Master, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, is a leading proponent of sustainable land use and rural policy. She is a published author, The Fight for Beauty and was appointed DBE for services to the environment and conservation in 2008. She is currently Chair of the Green Alliance; Chair of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden; Chair of the International National Trusts Organisation; and is a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate. She is the former Director-General, National Trust; Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office; Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England; Non-Executive Director and Senior Independent Director of the Executive Board of the BBC. She will be taking up the post of Chair of the National Audit Office in January 2021 and is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.
Dame Barbara Stocking, CBE, DBE, MA (Cambridge), became the 5th President of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, in July 2013. In addition to Barbara’s College responsibilities, Barbara is also a Trustee of the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Cambridge Trust. In March 2015, Barbara was also appointed Chair of the Independent Panel of Experts to assess WHO’s response in the Ebola outbreak. The report was published in July 2015. From May 2001 to February 2013 Barbara was Chief Executive of Oxfam GB and before that, a member of the top management team of the NHS, as regional director for the South East of England, and then as the founding Director of the NHS Modernisation Agency. Barbara chaired a number of national committees while in the NHS, including the NHS National Research Allocation Committee. In recent years (2010-15) she was a Non-Executive member of the UK Cabinet Office Board and for two years Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Dr Jake Reynolds, DPhil (Oxford), BSc (Sussex), is Executive Director for Sustainable Economy at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in addition to his role as a senior advisor to CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance. He sits on the editorial advisory board of Nature Sustainability; UN Environment’s GEO for Business advisory board; board of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, and of the sustainability advisory board of Union Banque Privaire. He is the chairman of an off-grid renewable energy stat-up in Uganda, and co-chair of the Green Growth Task Force, DRC. This follows on from his previous role as Head of Wellbeing at the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission, leading policy on future education, health and transport. He was previously nominated for Civil Service Awards for Outstanding contributions to policy development in 2009 and 2010. He has also been recognised for his work with the UN and British Government on capacity building with two at Uganda’s leading environment institute, following his research at Oxford Engineering Department.
