CALL FOR PARTNERS, SESSION PROPOSALS & SPONSORS: Climate Law and Governance Day 2025

Call for Partners, Session Proposals and Sponsors

 

Climate Law and Governance Day 2025

The Paris Agreement at 10 – Advancing Climate Courage, Contributions & Compliance

 

Convening virtually on Friday, 14 November 2025 during the UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil

 

With leading climate law and governance counsel, experts and practitioners preparing to join over 20,000 Party delegates and observers for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 30 Conference of the Parties (COP30) on 10 November – 21 November 2025, a unique opportunity arises to increase ambition, harness the knowledge and engagement of the climate law and governance community, share innovations and good practices, and strengthen networks and capacity for ambitious climate action.

 

In response, the Climate Law and Governance Initiative has launched this global call for partners, sponsors and session hosts for Climate Law and Governance Day 2025, which will be held on Friday 14 November 2025 this year, entirely online.

 

The opportunity is now open for any interested Parties, observers or other institutions to become partners or sponsors, or to propose a session for the programme, joining the Programme Committee if selected and becoming a partner in the process.

 

 

Overview

 

Climate Law and Governance Day 2025 will feature a full online global symposium of distinguished plenaries, celebratory launching events, specialist panels and workshops, followed by a proposed official side event in the COP30, several pavilion events with partners, and a climate law and governance specialization course potentially to be held in Belém and online on Sunday 16 November 2025.  

 

Key Reasons to become a Partner in Climate Law & Governance Day 2025

• Share climate law and governance knowledge, research, innovations and experiences
• Network and open opportunities for new collaborations to implement the Paris Agreement
• Learn from leading research and initiatives in climate law and governance
• Connect with specialist climate law and governance support
• Access innovative legal and institutional tools to advance ambitious climate action

 

Submissions will be accepted up to 25 September 2025. For updates regarding Climate Law and Governance Day (CLGD) 2025, visit the CLGI website by clicking here.

 

 

 

CLGD 2025 Objectives

• Inspire and optimize legal and institutional reform to operationalize and implement the Paris Agreement at 10
• Profile and share innovative international, national, and local law and governance challenges, mechanisms and good practices
• Catalyse knowledge exchange and co-generate new climate law and governance scholarship, insights and approaches, facilitating new dialogue and partnerships
• Strengthen capacity and collaboration among the climate law and governance community of practice, supporting achievement of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

CLGD 2025 Themes

The Paris Agreement is ten this year. This year’s symposium will focus on the following four key themes, which have been identified in consultation with the CLGI Programme Committee based on the vision and goals to enhance ambition and enable action set by Brazil as the UNFCCC COP30 Presidency, as informed by the UNFCCC 62nd Subsidiary Bodies meetings in June 2025:

 

1. Operationalising the Paris Agreement at 10: Contributing to the “Baku to Belem Roadmap” by strengthening measurable progress across sectors; prioritising forests as nature based solutions, recognizing their role as critical carbon sinks and biodiversity reservoirs, and advancing ecosystem based approaches essential for climate resilience and global mitigation efforts; advancing the operationalisation of Article 9 and the Loss and Damage Fund as well as adaptation indicators regarding the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA); enhancing transparency, the Global Stocktake (GST), technology transfer, and capacity-building through the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement implementation architecture (COP/SBs, global dialogues, expert groups, implementation and compliance committee), as well as through complementary international regimes such as UNCLOS, CBD, and IMO.
2. Scaling Up National Climate Ambition and Action through Law and Governance: Innovating high ambition instruments for climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and finance; creating multilevel governance synergies within and across sectors; advancing local, regional and national carbon budgets, planning rules and regulations; assessing legal barriers and strengthening capacity amongst leaders, practitioners and advocates for NDCs/NAPs/LTs delivery. Strengthened legal coherence and integration across policy frameworks is essential to ensure implementation at scale and alignment with the Paris Agreement and global climate goals.
3. Advancing Climate Justice: Engaging civil society and the legal community, courts, law associations and others in raising climate ambition and accelerating climate action, enhancing transparency and ensuring accountability, integrating rights-based approaches, advancing loss and damage response, supporting access to climate justice and climate litigation, and addressing climate migration and intergenerational equity. Leveraging advisory opinions from international and regional courts can clarify legal obligations, while embedding human rights at the core of climate governance ensures that climate responses are equitable and just.
4. Deploying Law and Legal Instruments for Investing in Just Transition: Harnessing law on all levels and commercial legal instruments to leverage the NCQG for mobilising all finance flows for investment in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience; scaling up re-allocation of capital and sustainable global supply chains, and addressing fossil fuel subsidies, climate risk disclosure, a just transition and decarbonisation, especially through private, trade, investment and competition law, and through commercial and corporate rules. Legal tools must also be used to ensure that trade policies support sustainability goals, that environmental labels are credible and enforceable, and that greenwashing is effectively prevented through robust regulatory frameworks and corporate accountability.

 

Venue

To reduce barriers and encourage global participation, this year’s Climate Law and Governance Day will be held entirely online via Zoom. Registration for the symposium will open in the coming weeks.

Proposing a Session

Any government, institution or consortium of partners is welcome to submit a brief proposal for a session (workshop, roundtable, panel) at Climate Law and Governance Day 2025.  

• Complete this short form to express your organisation’s interest in hosting a session during Climate Law and Governance Day 2025. A modest cost-share is required from all successful proponents for success of the entire event, which covers design and printing of materials, outreach, volunteer coordination, reporting and least developed country / student participation.
• Or email the CLGI Coordinators with (1) the name / country of the proposing organisation and any partners; (2) the name/email of the lead contact (sessions hosted by consortia of several partners especially welcome); (3) the proposed title of your 70-minute session and your preferred format (panel, roundtable, participatory workshop, grand plenary); (4) the themes you plan to address (see the CLGD 2025 four themes above); and (5) a short 60 word description of your topic and any speakers to climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org with subject line “CLGD 2025 Session Proposal,” cc’ing any CLGI Programme Committee colleagues.
• UNFCCC Parties, Observers, institutions or other stakeholders interested in co-hosting or sponsoring Climate Law & Governance Day 2025 are also welcome to contact the CLGI secretariat by email at climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org, with any questions or to discuss collaboration. Partners and sponsors are especially sought to provide participation grants which can enable more least developed and highly climate vulnerable country delegates, academics, students and other stakeholders to engage more equitably in CLGD 2025, and to cover communications, reporting, volunteer coordination and other costs of hosting events.  

 

Deadlines

Parties, Observer organisations and others are invited to contact the CLGI Programme Committee by 25 September 2025 to propose a session or collaboration for selection by the Committee (See form https://forms.office.com/e/u8EdMd02AZ). Successful session hosts and co-hosts will be informed by 08 October 2025.

 

Warmest thanks are due to the past and present partners, sponsors and co-hosts of Climate Law and Governance Day over the years.

 

 

ANNEX – Further Details

 

Key Elements of a CLGD 2025 Session Proposal

Any government, institution or consortium of partners is welcome to submit a brief proposal for a 70-minute concurrent session in CLGD 2025. To be considered by the Programme Committee, session proposals must be submitted by 25 September 2025 and should include (as per the form):

 

1. Session Title: The proposed title should be short, approximately 4-8 words, and should start with an action verb, such as advancing, linking, governing, legislating, judging, etc.

 

1. Session Contact/Host: This individual is the primary contact for all communications with the CLGI Secretariat, session chairs, speakers and intervenors, and is responsible for sharing information and leading outreach, including for potential registrants. A valid email address is key.

 

1. Convening Organisation(s): These organisations will be involved in hosting the session and can include, but are not limited to, organisations with which proposed speakers are affiliated.

 

1. Session Description/Chairs/Speakers: This high-level description of the session topic and speakers is in paragraph form, no bullet points. (100-word maximum)

 

1. Session Theme: Select the theme most related to the session proposed. Additional information regarding each theme can be found above under “CLGD 2025 Themes.”

• Theme 1: Operationalising the Paris Agreement
• Theme 2: Scaling Up National Climate Ambition and Action through Law and Governance
• Theme 3: Advancing Climate Justice
• Theme 4: Deploying Law and Legal Instruments for Investing in Transition

 

1. Session Type Preference: Select a preferred session type, to be taken into consideration by the Programme Committee.

• Experts Panel (experts present their views on a topic, followed by a moderated discussion and attendee Q&A)
• Legal Roundtable (conversation between speakers on a topic, without slides or presentation materials, followed by attendee Q&A)
• Participatory Workshop (interactive discussion focused on joint exploration of a topic, followed by attendee Q&A)

 

1. Proposed Chairs/Speakers and Discussants/Intervenors: Provide title, name, position and affiliation of 2-8 proposed chairs/speakers, who will lead the session and speak, and 4-6 further discussants/intervenors, who commit to being online during the session, but will only present formally if a speaker drops out at the last minute, and may ask first questions during the Q&A.

 

1. Proposed Cost Share: To offset the costs of hosting this special global event, session hosts seek sponsors for their session, to contribute a cost-share depending on means. Small contributions by each successful session proponent cover law student support for registration, coordination, website and social media engagement, and reporting from the event. They also cover post design and outreach, communications, programme design and formatting, zoom licence fees and bookkeeping. Please provide the amount between $300 – $9000 USD that your session will contribute if selected. Total contributions can be shared among co-convenors. To encourage proposals from least developed and climate vulnerable countries and institutions, three sessions are sponsored by CLGI Programme Committee members and do not require any cost-share.  

 

Proposed sessions that plan to profile the work of hosts across the global UNFCCC community and/or offer launching or convening points for ongoing programmes are especially encouraged.

 

Approximately 40-100 proposals for sessions are received each year for CLGD. An open and transparency selection process is led by the CLGI COP30 Programme Committee, and proponents may be asked to combine their proposals with others to co-host a session, opening the maximum opportunities for organizations to host events.

 

To propose a session during CLGD 2025, please complete the form by the 25 September 2025. If you have trouble accessing the form, please email the Programme Coordinators at climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org with subject line “CLGD 2025 Session Proposal.”

 

Proposed sessions will be reviewed by the CLGI COP30 Programme Committee, and proponents may be asked to co-host a session, merging their proposals with others who have proposed similar topics, in order to ensure that more organisations can host events. Successful proponents contribute modest cost-shares to ensure the success of the entire event. CLGI Programme Committee members sponsor two proposals from least developed and highly climate vulnerable countries and institutions, and no cost-share is required by these two sponsored sessions.

 

Becoming a Partner or Sponsor

 

Government departments from Parties to the UNFCCC or the Paris Agreement, UN bodies, other intergovernmental organisations, academic and other institutions, jurists, law firms and associations, businesses and civil society are invited to join as partners or sponsors of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative. The continued support of our diverse network of government, intergovernmental, university, private sector and civil society partners, as well as law firms and associations, is very important and new partners are always welcome.

 

Partners and sponsors are especially sought to provide participation grants which can enable more least developed and highly climate vulnerable country delegates, academics, students and other stakeholders to engage more equitably in CLGD 2025, and to cover communications, reporting, volunteer coordination and other costs of hosting events. Potential partners or sponsors are welcome to contact the CLGI Secretariat by email at climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org with any questions or to discuss collaboration.

 

Evaluation Criteria

Proposed sessions are evaluated by the CLGI COP30 Programme Committee. During the selection process, the Programme Committee takes into consideration:

• whether the proposed session has a clear linkage to one or more of the key themes for CLGD 2025;
• the significance of the substantive topic for the evolving global climate law and governance agenda;
• the global nature of the proposed session, considering the importance of regional equity, diversity and inclusion, including gender balance; and
• the rigour and clarity of the session proposal.

 

Contact Us

For questions regarding session proposals, or becoming a partner or sponsor, please contact the CLGI Secretariat at climatelawgovernance@cisdl.org.

 

More About the CLGD 2025 Symposium

 

Climate Law and Governance Day 2025 builds on a series of special events co-hosted by key partners from the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI) during the UNFCCC climate conferences since the 2005 MOP1/COP11 in Montreal, Canada to mobilise the international law and governance community to help implement the UNFCCC and most recently, the Paris Agreement in the context of the global Sustainable Development Goals. This global international symposium aims to facilitate meaningful dialogue between COP delegates, observers and stakeholders, also keen students, with an interest in national and international law and governance related to climate change, including government representatives and leaders, leading international and domestic legal practitioners, and renowned legal experts. Warmest thanks are due to the past and present partners and co-hosts of Climate Law and Governance Day.

 

More about the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI)

 

The Climate Law and Governance Initiative is a world-leading partnership of law and governance faculties, expert institutes, international organisations, lawmakers, government delegates and foremost practitioners, which since 2015 has been collaborating to foster implementation of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement with the support of a small secretariat provided by the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) from McGill University and the University of Cambridge.

 

Each year, CLGI supports an international programme of special side events and other sessions hosted by collaborating partners, co-hosts and session hosts, including the Research and Independent NGOs (RINGOs) constituency and others at the COP. These events often take place in official UNFCCC side event zones of the COP30 Climate Change Conference, as well as further associated venues, in collaboration with leading climate law and governance organisations. CLGI publishes blog contributions during COP30, as well as legal working papers and books with world-leading presses based on COP collaborations.