Climate Law and Governance Day 2026
- Operationalising the Paris Agreement: Advancing the implementation of ambitious NDC 3.0 commitments and long-term low-emission development strategies; translating the outcomes of the “Baku to Belem Roadmap” into measurable action across sectors; prioritizing 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, including the New Collective Quantified Goal, the Loss and Damage Fund, as well as 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Deploying Law and Legal Instruments for Implementing Decarbonization through Finance, Investment, and Trade: 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.
past Climate Law and Governance Day Reports
Climate Law and Governance Day 2025 was held on Friday, 14 November 2025, during COP30 in Belém, Brazil, under the theme “The Paris Agreement at 10 – Advancing Climate Courage, Contributions and Compliance.” The event brought together leading climate law and governance experts, practitioners, policymakers, judges, negotiators, academics, and civil society representatives to explore how legal and institutional innovation can strengthen climate action and accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Co-hosted by Universidade de Caxias do Sul, the Federal University of Pará, FGV Law Rio, the University of Cambridge, and other international partners, the symposium featured high-level plenaries, specialist panels, workshops, roundtables, and launch events. Discussions focused on advancing climate ambition, strengthening compliance and accountability, mobilising climate finance, supporting just transitions, and protecting the rights of vulnerable communities.
The 2025 symposium centred on four key themes: operationalising the Paris Agreement at its ten-year mark; scaling up national climate ambition and action through law and governance; advancing climate justice; and deploying legal instruments to support investment in a just transition.
Climate Law and Governance Day 2024
Climate Law and Governance Day 2024 was held on Friday, 15 November 2024, during COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The full-day global symposium brought together leading climate law and governance experts, legal practitioners, policymakers, judges, negotiators, academics, students, and civil society stakeholders to explore how law and governance can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement and strengthen global climate action.
Held entirely online via Zoom to encourage wider global participation, CLGD 2024 featured high-level plenaries, launch events, and more than 12 specialist panels and workshops. The symposium focused on advancing legal and institutional reforms needed to support current Nationally Determined Contributions, respond to Global Stocktake outcomes, increase ambition for future NDCs, and promote collaboration across the climate law and governance community.
The 2024 symposium centred on four key themes: operationalising the Paris Agreement; scaling up national climate ambition and action through law and governance; advancing climate justice; and deploying law and legal instruments to support investment in transition.
Climate Law and Governance Day 2023 was held on Tuesday, 5 December 2023, during COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, under the theme “Engaging in Global Stocktake through Legal Lenses.” The event took place in person at Middlesex University Dubai and online, bringing together climate law and governance experts, legal practitioners, academics, judges, policymakers, students, civil society representatives, and institutional leaders from around the world.
The symposium highlighted the vital role of law in responding to the climate crisis, strengthening environmental governance, advancing climate justice, and supporting countries in building resilient legal and institutional frameworks. Discussions emphasized the need for collaboration across law associations, universities, law firms, international organisations, and public institutions to accelerate legal reform and support a just transition.
Key sessions focused on legal progress under the Paris Agreement, climate litigation, climate finance, technology transfer, climate competent lawyering, rights of future generations, clean energy transition, climate governance integrity, anti-greenwashing regulation, sustainable procurement, and legal pathways for climate adaptation and mitigation.