Leading Experts at COP26 Commit to Scale-Up Climate Law & Governance Capacity Worldwide TENFOLD from 600 to 6,000 by 2024
CLGI CoP26 2021 Press Release Outcomes Statement – Glasgow 2021
Of the 186 nationally determined contributions in the first-round of submissions, 169 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) explicitly prioritized the need for legal or institutional reform to achieve their global contribution to climate change, with 99 Parties calling for increasing capacity-building for action, new legal research from the University of Cambridge and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) shows.
The first week of COP26 here in Glasgow has seen significant commitments by States and private sectors, including many countries pledging net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner, alignment of $130 trillion in finance with the Paris Agreement before 2050 through the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (Gfanz), and the largest ever renewal of the Adaptation Fund. For Glasgow COP26 promises to be realized, however, we need binding regulations, carefully crafted contracts, disclosure obligations and thousands of other legal tools on all scales, building trust, accountability and climate justice.
The world’s climate law and governance community, now more than ever, needs to strengthen knowledge, capacity and practice – exponentially.
Indeed, “A massive capacity chasm is gaping in our path ahead,” says Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, Senior Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and Executive Secretary of the global Climate Law and Governance Initiative at COP26. “We need dynamic climate law and public policy specialists in every country, capable and active in their bar associations, universities, firms and civil society, making net zero a reality across the board. Climate law and public policy must be taught in every law school – backed by new research and training at all levels – for even a hope to implement the Paris Agreement and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
During COP26 and beyond, over 200 committed partners have come together through the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI) to share lessons among a growing community of practice and chart the future for this critical field – actively engaging professors, practitioners, judges and other leaders from international organizations, judiciaries, institutes, leading law firms and universities. In response to a global Call to scale up the desperately needed capacity, CLGI partners co-hosted an online academic climate law and public policy preparatory conference on Climate Change, the SDGs and the Law at the University of Cambridge, with over 750 registrants from over 90 countries on 29-30 October. On Friday, 05 November, during COP26, over 1,100 registrants from over 120 countries joined in Climate Law and Governance Day (CLGD) 2021 hosted online and in-person at the University of Glasgow, in partnership with Strathclyde and Cambridge universities, for 3 high level plenaries and 16 substantive sessions spanning all aspects of law and climate change. The Day culminated in a celebration of the new laureates of the 2021 Climate Law & Governance Global Leadership Awards and the 2021 International Student Essay Competition (see attached, for Winners).
To share outcomes at COP26 itself, on 06 November key municipal, national, and international legal innovations were shared in an Official Side-Event on Net Zero Climate Law and Governance – Advancing Ambition and Action to Implement the Paris Agreement and the SDGs. The interactive legal roundtable brought together leading experts from the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security (GCILS) and other partners of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative, also IKEM, the Asociacion Ambiente y Sociedad and Centro Humboldt.
Further, on 07 November 2021, helping to train a new generation of specialists world-wide, the Climate Law & Governance Specialization Course hosted in the University of Strathclyde certified 163 in person and virtual participants from over 60 countries.
Over this remarkable programme of climate law events, CLGI Partners, including leading university co-hosts, CISDL, GCILS, the newly launched NZLA and many others united to bridge the legal capacity chasm, calling on all firms, faculties and foundations to widen the circle of climate law and governance professors and practitioners from 600 to 6,000 in 2 years or less, engaging qualified leaders in every legal system and converting ambition to obligation worldwide.
To arrange interviews or for further details, at COP26 please contact:
Adv Tejas Rao, Associate Fellow and Programme Coordinator for Peace, Justice and Governance, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. M: +44 7900 279 365 E: tr465@cam.ac.uk
Adv Freedom-Kai Phillips, Operations Director and Legal Research Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. E: fkp22@cam.ac.uk
ANNEX I – FOR NEWS STORIES, THE EXPERTS SAY….
Adv Wendy Miles, QC, CLGI Chair and a representative of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, emphasized the role of commercial lawyers and law firms “to work with their clients as they transition to net zero and seek to mobilize the necessary finance to achieve that.” She encourages lawyers to innovate and utilize existing commercial law instruments to advance those client objectives.
Maitre Ayman Cherkaoui, CLGI Chair, CISDL Lead Counsel and Ambassador, Adaptation without Borders signaled the allocation of finance is crucial for adaptation as well, noting “there are tricky legal issues on adaptation that will require countries to demonstrate a real spirit of multilateralism, collaborating inside the negotiations, and beyond, to solve. Without this the 2030 Agenda commitment to “leave no one behind” may not be fulfilled.”
Prof Christina Voigt, CLGI Chair, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Chair and Co-Chair of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee (PAICC) added a perspective from inside the Blue Zone, noting that: “while these transitions toward a net-zero future continue, the PAICC has been working hard to craft rules of procedure that would advance the implementation of the objectives contained in the Paris Agreement in a facilitative, collaborative manner with Parties.”
Dr Giedre Jokubauskaite, co-host of CLGD 2021 and a lecturer at the University of Glasgow said: “It was an honour to host this global effort, with these historic advances – the international research and teaching partnerships created here will contribute to key advances in climate legal capacity for Scotland.”
Adv Douglas Leys, QC, receiving the Global Leadership Award as a General Counsel for his world-leading efforts in the Green Climate Fund. Giving thanks to his family and GCF colleagues, he underlined: “this Award acknowledges the leadership role that multilateral development banks can take in building climate resilient futures.”
FOR INTERVIEWS AT COP26, Climate Law & Governance Initiative Executive Secretary, Chairs and Hosts:
- Professor Dr Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, Senior Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and Full Professor of Law at the University of Waterloo. E: mccs2@cam.ac.uk
- Professor Dr Christina Voigt, Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, Chair of the Climate Change Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and Co-Chair of the Paris Agreement’s Implementation and Compliance Committee. E: christina.voigt@jus.uio.no
- Maitre Ayman Cherkaoui, Lead Counsel for Climate Change at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and Coordinator of Strategic Development for the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection in Rabat, Morocco. E: acherkaoui@cisdl.org
- Adv M. Hafijul Islam Khan, Executive Director of the Centre for Climate Justice Bangladesh, climate negotiator with the Least Developed Countries Group, and Research Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. E: hafij.khan@uwaterloo.ca
- Adv Wendy Miles QC, founder of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration Vice-President, Twenty Essex Chambers Barrister and Global Climate Law Leadership Award Laureate. E: wmiles@twentyessex.com
- Dr Giedre Jokubauskaite, co-host of the Climate Law and Governance Day 2021 and Lecturer in International Law at the University of Glasgow, UK. E: giedre.jokubauskaite@glasgow.ac.uk
- Rebecca Williams, co-host of the Climate Law and Governance Day 2021, Interim Director of Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance, and Teaching Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, UK. E: rebecca.williams@strath.ac.uk
ANNEX II – WINNERS OF THE 2021 CLIMATE LAW & GOVERNANCE AWARDS
Each COP, CLGI Partners recognize the leading efforts of climate law and governance practitioners and scholars, and this year’s 2021 Climate Law & Governance Global Leadership Awards recognized the efforts of:
- Climate Law Practitioner: DLA Piper’s Steven Gray for helping to found the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and for his efforts to engage junior associates and law students in the practice of climate law;
- Climate Negotiator: Maitre Paul Watkinson, senior negotiator of France, for his engagement and inclusion efforts as Co-Chair of SBSTA, also his profound technical expertise and extraordinary efforts in the drafting of the Paris Agreement;
- Climate General Counsel: Adv Douglas Leys, QC for his excellent service to the world’s climate finance community in the Green Climate Fund, and for his outstanding partnership-building across the Commonwealth and with legal stakeholders worldwide;
- Climate Law Community Leader: Adv Lucy Maxwell and all her colleagues for their continued inspiring efforts in the Climate Litigation Network and the Urgenda Foundation; and
- Climate Law Faculty Leader: Prof Rosa Fernandez Egea on behalf of the Autonomous University of Madrid Faculty of Law in Spain and Prof Pilar Moraga on behalf of the University of Chile Faculty of Law, for their extraordinary efforts to co-host and inspire research, students and the global climate law community.
The 2021 Climate Law & Governance Student Essay Competition featured submissions from students across the world, with warmest of congratulations to the laureates:
- Stefan Prelevic (University of Melbourne, Australia) and Marcelo Molina Villalobos (University of Chile) won Platinum for outstanding essays on “Child Rights and Climate Change: Legislative Avenues for Australian Children” and “La Judicializacion del Cambio Climatico a traves del Derecho Internacional del Mar”.
- Jacob Bohill (University of Glasgow, UK) and Anita Lucchini (Trento University, Italy) won Gold for excellent essays on “Analyzing Practical and Legal Challenges in the Retention of Small Island Developing State Statehood” and “The (Un)Sustainability of Central Banks Collateral Frameworks: A Carbon Bias.”
- Larissa Parker (McGill University, Canada) and Elena Bonfiglio (Swiss Italian University, Switzerland) won Silver for their inspiring essays on “Latest developments in emission trading” and “Beyond non-justifiability for public interest climate litigation.”
