Climate Law & Governance Initiative (CLGI) 2022 – Highlights & Outcomes Statement

Press Release | CLGI COP 27

Posted on November 16, 2022 (updated December 1, 2022)

Climate Law & Governance Initiative (CLGI) 2022 – Highlights & Outcomes Statement

UNFCCC CoP27 – Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

November 16, 2022

Climate Law and Governance Together for Implementation  

Leading Experts, Jurists and Leaders at COP27 Challenge Law Associations to Innovate, Celebrate New Climate Law Toolkits, and Commit to Democratize Climate Law & Governance Capacity

(Press Release with Interviews on Offer)

The first week of COP27, with an estimated 35,000 participants, has seen an intense focus on fast and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, especially country Parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). According to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, “national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years” if we want to keep alive the goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Climate Law and Governance Initiative, as a consortium of over 200 partners from international organizations, universities, law and governance institutes, governments, bar associations, judiciaries, civil society and practice have come together during COP27 to collectively implement the Paris Agreement by strengthening climate law and governance on all levels.  

CLIMATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE DAY 2022

On Friday, 11 November, over 1,400 registrants from around the globe joined in Climate Law and Governance Day (CLGD) 2022, which was held online and co-hosted by partners from the University of Cambridge and the Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, together with the International Law Association, the International Bar Association, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law and the African Union Commission on International Law. CLGD 2022 focused on Implementing Climate Commitments through Policy, Law & Practice, with the following four key themes:

1. Operationalising the Paris Agreement;
2. Testing Legal and Governance Tools for High Ambition Implementation;
3. Advancing Climate Resilience and Climate Justice; and
4. Net Zero Legal Frameworks to Enable Climate Neutral Investment and Finance.

CLGD2022 featured a grand opening, three high-level plenaries, and sixteen substantive experts sessions addressing a wide range of pressing climate law and governance challenges and solutions. To see the Full Programme for CLGD2022, please click here. CLGD2022 culminated in a celebration of the new laureates of the 2022 Climate Law & Governance Global Leadership Awards and the 2022 International Student Essay Competition (for Laureates, see Annex I).

OUTCOMES FROM CLGD2022

Resulting from this remarkable programme of climate law and governance events bringing together over 120 legal leaders and experts, and 1400+ registrants, CLGI Partners took on real implementation commitments. 

• During the high-level plenary on Creating Climate Conscious Legal Practice, advocates from various bar associations and law societies issued a climate law and governance innovation challenge to dozens of law associations on climate law and governance by COP28. Representatives from the Law Society of England & Wales and from the American Bar Association accepted this challenge, with great interest expressed by the Order of the Bar Association of Brazil, the International Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association, to develop guidance, to expand education on climate law and governance among law associations throughout the world and to conduct outreach on these issues by next year’s Climate Law and Governance Day. 

• During CLGD2022, other CLGI Partners announced and celebrated the release of toolkits that will strengthen climate law and governance and will advance its implementation on both international and national levels. The Centre for Climate Engagement at Hughes Hall University of Cambridge celebrated its new Law and Climate Atlas, which aims to assist lawyers in guiding their clients through a transition to net zero and aims to make lawyers aware of how their practice is impacted by climate change, especially in the UK. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & The Environment announced their new partnership with Climate Policy Radar to launch an AI-powered global climate law and policy database. The Commonwealth Secretariat celebrated its Law and Climate Change Toolkit, which is an open database that provides global resources for countries to establish legal frameworks to implement the targets in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The Commonwealth Secretariat also highlighted its SIDS Clean Energy Toolkit, developed in partnership with Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll), which assists countries in creating investment opportunities for their clean energy transition. 
• During CLGD2022 partners in the experts roundtable on Democratizing Climate Law & Governance Capacity committed to democratize climate law education for sustainability, by creating a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on climate law and governance, in partnership with 20 esteemed universities from around the world, to fill the gap that currently exists in climate law and governance course offerings in law schools and law programs. 
• During an experts panel on Promoting Climate Action through Europe/Americas Trade Agreements, experts from the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) announced the publication of the five new legal experts reports how EU-Americas Trade and Climate Law can foster not frustrate climate commitments in Nationally Determined Contributions:
  • European Union Trade Agreement Negotiations with Latin American States: Next Steps in the Climate, Sustainable Development and Trade Agenda
  • Inclusion of Climate Commitments in Trade Agreements and the Current EU-Chile Trade Agreement Negotiations
  • Trading Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis? Addressing Environmental Protection in the EU-Mexico Global Agreement Renegotiation Process
  • Environment and Climate Change in the EU-CA Association Agreement and Preliminary Recommendations for a Future Renegotiation
  • Ratcheting up Climate Standards: What are the Opportunities for Improving the EU-Andes Trade Agreement?

CLIMATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE SPECIALISATION COURSE

To train a new generation of climate specialists worldwide capable of advancing climate law and governance and advocating for implementation, the Climate Law and Governance Initiative hosted a Climate Law and Governance Specialization Course. More than 400 learners registered for this year’s online course, which was held on 13 November 2022. The specialization course, chaired by Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship, University of Cambridge / Executive Secretary, CLGI and Senior Director, CISDL) and Maitre Ayman Cherkaoui (Lead Counsel, CISDL / Director, Hassan II International Centre for Enviro Training), focused on strengthening capacity for climate law and governance. The half-day course provided a foundational understanding of the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC and included sessions on Law, Governance & Climate Mitigation; Climate Law & Governance on Adaptation, Loss and Damage; and Climate Law & Governance on Finance, Compliance & Transparency. The course featured lectures by leading global professors and experts Dr Markus Gehring (Lead Counsel, CISDL / Associate Professor, Univ Cambridge), Prof Michael Mehling (Deputy Director, MIT Centre for Energy and Environment Research / Professor, University of Strathclyde), Maitre Ayman Cherkaoui, Adv M. Hafijul Islam Khan and Adv Wendy Miles KC. Three breakout sessions allowed participants to share country experiences and analyze climate law and policy approaches with colleagues from around the world. The nearly 170 participants who successfully passed the post-course assessment received a climate law and governance certification and were invited to join a global Registry which is part of a CLGI Glasgow COP26 Pledge to increase climate law and governance capacity from 600 to 6,000 specialists by 2024.

OFFICIAL SIDE-EVENT AT UNFCCC COP27

On November 17, 2022, Climate Law and Governance Initiative partners shared the outcomes of CLGD2022 during the Initiative’s official side-event on Strengthening Legal Tools & Capacity for Climate Justice & Resilience, during UNFCCC COP27 in the Blue Zone. The side-event’s interactive legal roundtables brought together leading experts from the Centre for Human Rights & Climate Change Research, Friendship, Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and Corporación Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente. The official recording of the side-event can be found here.

The Climate Law and Governance Initiative would like to thank all the session chairs, speakers and volunteers whose extraordinary efforts and expertise made CLGI’s COP27 such a success. CLGI would like to especially extend its deepest gratitude to Ain Shams University and Dr Ahmed Khalifa for co-hosting this year’s Climate Law and Governance Day.

FOR MEDIA CONTACTS:

To arrange interviews at COP27 or for further details, please contact:

• Adv Tejas Rao, E: tr465@cam.ac.uk 
• Dr M Antonieta “Antoinette” Nestor E: Maria.Nestor@admin.cam.ac.uk

FOR INTERVIEWS AT COP27, 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: voigt@jus.uio.no
• Maitre Ayman Cherkaoui, Director of the Hassan II International Centre for Environmental Training, Deputy Chair of the IUCN WCEL and Lead Counsel for Climate Change at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. 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: khan@uwaterloo.ca
• Adv Wendy Miles KC, 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 Ahmed Khalifa, assistant professor of law at Ain Shams University, Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Penal Law, and the Middle East Coordinator for the Oxford University Price Media Law Moot Court Competition. E: ahmed_f_khalifa@law.asu.edu.eg

ANNEX I – FOR NEWS STORIES, THE EXPERTS SAY. . .

• Professor Dr Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, CLGI Executive Secretary and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, emphasized the “urgent need to scale up skilled climate law and governance specialists around the world” by COP28 to meet the need of the “169 country Parties prioritizing legal and institutional reforms in their Nationally Determined Contributions.”
• Dr Ahmed Khalifa, assistant professor of law at Ain Shams University and co-host of CLGD 2022 noted that “protecting the environment from climate change is not only the responsibility of legislators” and emphasized that “judges, academics and civil society have pivotal roles to play” in addressing the climate crisis.

ANNEX II – CLGI IS HONOURED TO ANNOUNCE THE LAUREATES OF THE 2022 CLIMATE LAW & GOVERNANCE AWARDS

Each COP, Judges from the CLGI Programme Committee recognize the leading efforts of climate law and governance practitioners and scholars, and this year’s 2022 Climate Law & Governance Global Leadership Awards celebrated the outstanding contributions of:

• Climate General Counsel: Dr Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Legal Director, UNEP for leading UNEP’s environmental law division in the global response to climate change
• Climate Negotiators: Ms Mariane Karlsen, Senior Negotiator, Norway / Chair, UNFCCC SBI and Ms Janine Felson, Senior Negotiator, AOSIS for advancing understanding and implementation of the Paris Agreement internationally
• Climate Law Practitioners: Adv Estelle Dehon KC, Co-Chair, Climate Crisis Working Group UK Bar Council and Adv Nina Pindham, Vice-Chair, UK Environmental Law Association / IBA Climate Law Coalition for engaging bar associations in climate law solutions and practice in the UK, Canada and globally; Adv Lungisani Zulu, Chair, Law Association of Zambia for advancing climate law and governance in Zambia and globally
• Climate Law Civil Society and Legal Community Leaders: Dr Caio Borges, Institute for Climate and Society (Brasilian) for supporting climate justice litigation in Brasil and worldwide and Adv Lucie Greyl, General Coordinator and Climate Litigation Lead, A Sud – Ecologia e Cooperazione Onlus for advancing climate justice and community leadership in Italy and worldwide
• Climate Law Faculty Leaders: Prof Giedre Jokubauskaite / Prof Henry Lovat / Prof Sarah Carter (Scottish) on behalf of the University of Glasgow; Prof Francesco Sindico / Dean Prof Claire McDiarmid on behalf of Strathclyde University; and Dr Markus Gehring / Prof Diane Coyle / Faculty Chair Prof David Howarth for world-class education, research and impact in climate law and governance, with thanks for their hospitality and engagement in co-hosting the CLG academic pre-conference, the CLG Day 2021 and the CLG Specialisation Course during CoP26 in the UK.

The 2022 Climate Law & Governance Student Essay Competition featured submissions from students across the world, with warmest of congratulations to the laureates:

• Platinum Awards: Christian Gutzwillier (University of California, Los Angeles, USA); Mikaella Bodeux (Utrecht University, Netherlands); Mayssa Mansour (Lebanese University, Lebanon); and Abdel Hamid Shehata Abdelrazek (South Valley University, Egypt) won Platinum for outstanding essays on Net Zero: A vague Concept on the Lookout for Guidance Policies, Regulatory Measures and Structuring Elements for Effective Decarbonization”; Copping Out? A Closer Look at the Phasedown of Unabated Coal Power Under the Glasgow Climate Pact; السبل القانونية لمواجهة أزمة التغير المناخي في ظل تطور التشريعات البي / Legal responses to the climate change crisis, in light of environmental legislative development;  هدف حياد الكربون كالتزام دستوري علي الدولة و الشركات / The goal of carbon neutrality as a constitutional obligation on the State and corporations.
• Gold Awards: Rachel Wam (University of California, Berkeley, USA);  Jorge Alejandro Carrillo Banuelos (Harvard Law School, USA); Motasem Jendaya (University Tunis El Manar, Tunisia); and Pakinam Alsonbaty & Mahtab Ali Elshenawy (Ain Shams University, Egypt) won Gold for excellent essays on “Crimes Against Nature are Crimes Against Humanity”: The Planet v Bolsonaro in Reframing Climate Change through Litigation; Emergencia climática y derechos humanos: definiendo el alcance de las obligaciones estatales desde la Comisión Interamericana; حقوق الإنسان والعدالة المناخية وفق الاتفاقيات الدولية” / Human rights and climate justice in light of international conventions; “المنازعات والحماية القضائية البيئية في مصر; والإطارات القانونية المقترحة لمواجهة مشكله تغير المناخ / Disputes and environmental judicial protection in Egypt: Proposed legal frameworks to address climate change
• Silver Awards: Kelly Gorman (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) and Kirsten Barratt, Megan Mannion & Koaile Monaheng (University of Cape Town and Rhodes University, South Africa); Che Yeon Kim, Zion Lee, and Ji Sung Park (Sciences Po Paris); Joman Rabah Al-Khateeb (University of private Applied sciences, Amman, Jordan) and Areej Olama (Hebron University, Palestine) won Silver for their inspiring essays on Transforming the World’s Food Systems: The Need for a Holistic Approach to Food Waste; Building Beyond Montreal and Basel: How a New “Plastics Treaty” Can Save Our Oceans; Past and Future of South Korea’s Nuclear Energy Policies; “التغيير المناخي في إطار القانون الدولي و القانون الدولي اإلنساني/ Climate change within the framework of international law and international humanitarian law;”حقوق الانسان و العدالة المناخية / Human rights and climate justice

Bronze Judges Commendations were also awarded to:

• Alaa Grada (The Islamic University, Palestine)
• Shaun Chua (National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Singapore)
• Abde Abde (Hebron University, Palestine)
• Rebecca Brimble (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
• Salah Jubair Saddam/Bador Salem (Karbala University, Iraq)
• Putu B. Nugraha (Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia)
• Yara Thaer Al Abbadi (Applied Sciences Private University, Jordan)
• Ifeanyi Nwokolo (University of Windsor, Canada)
• Nasser Thabet (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar)
• Mohab Elhakem (Hewlan University, Egypt)
• Intissar Badr (Lebanese University, Lebanon)
• Lara Shirley (University of Melbourne)

For a PDF version, please see below: