Climate Law & Governance Day 2019: Most Significant Gathering of International Legal Community on Climate Change Since Paris

On Friday 6 December 2019, on Spain’s historic National Constitution Day (Día de la Constitución), over 300 participants from across the world gathered at the Faculty of Law at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid for the 5^th annual Climate Law & Governance Day (CLGD) symposium alongside the UNFCCC COP25, marking the event the biggest since the inaugural CLGD in Paris alongside COP21 in 2015. The event, accredited by the COP25 Presidency, was led by the Climate Law & Governance Initiative (CLGI) consortium of over 120 partners, and hosted by leading climate law experts from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of Chile, the University of Cambridge and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL).
A collection of the photos from the day is available here.  For a brief synopsis of the highlights of the day, access the CLGD 2019 Outcomes Statement here.

Get a taste of the highlights from the opening of CLGD 2019 below:

Across a full day of 14 intensive expert panel and roundtable sessions and high-level plenaries, judges, legal practitioners, academics, university deans, researchers, students and professors shared knowledge and charted key trends and insights on strengthening legal foundations for climate ambition and compliance, with a focus on legal innovations and solutions in three key areas:

• Advancing Paris Agreement Innovations – New Rules for Transparency, Markets & Non-Market Instruments, Finance, Loss & Damage, Compliance & Safeguards;
• Scaling-up National & Regional Climate Legal Frameworks for Action – Effective Climate Governance, Ecosystems-Based & Human Rights Responses, Human Mobility & Climate Justice Litigation;
• Local & Global Interlinkages & Engagement – Climate Change in Regimes on Oceans, Biodiversity, Ozone, Civil Aviation, Trade, Investment, Peace & Security.

The Day culminated in two high-level plenaries, focusing on advancing Paris Agreement implementation through legal practice and negotiation, and enhancing climate change responses through legal research and teaching.

Further, the winners of the Global Climate Law and Governance Student Essay Competition were announced, and the day concluded with the first-ever Climate Law and Governance Global Leadership Awards 2019.

To read the full press release for Climate Law and Governance Day 2019, click here. Access the Spanish version here. The programme for the day may be accessed here. For more information, or to learn about how to be involved in CLGD 2020, please email climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org.

CLGD 2019 Proceedings Report Now Available

For a detailed summary of each session held at CLGD 2019, view the CLGD 2019 Proceedings Report here. Thank you to all those who contributed to making CLGD 2019 such a success.