21 April 2016

Working under the umbrella of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi), LRI with the International Institute of Environment and Development and Oxford Climate Policy has published a “pocket guide” on the Paris Agreement.

The Guide summarizes the key provisions of the new climate agreement, which was adopted in Paris on 12 December 2015, at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It will be open for signature by governments in New York from tomorrow (22 April 2016).

The Guide is meant as a companion for government and non-government participants in the negotiations under the Ad Hoc Group on the Paris Agreement (APA), and also for national-level stakeholders who wish to understand what the Paris Agreement means for national-level implementation.

An electronic version can be downloaded here: https://legalresponse.org/legaladvice/pocket-guide-to-the-paris-agreement/ For hard-copies, please contact Anju Sharma, Head of the ecbi Publications and Policy Analysis Unit: Anju.Sharma@OxfordClimatePolicy.org

18 April 2016

The european capacity ­building initiative (ecbi) organised a two-­day capacity ­building workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 14 to 15 April 2016 for junior developing country negotiators. LRI is one of the ecbi lead organisations and LRI lawyer Subhi Barakat presented at the workshop on a variety of issues.

The workshop brought together participants from eight different countries, including least developed countries and a small island developing state. Half of the participants were women, and half of the presenters were from developing countries.

Few participants were already familiar with the climate change regime, few were lawyers and almost none had attended negotiation sessions in the past. The workshop covered all aspects of the climate negotiations and focussed on the Paris Agreement and next steps for developing countries.

LRI facilitated sessions on mitigation and practical negotiation skills. Participants were encouraged to engage in discussions and also took part in mock drafting and negotiation sessions.

10 March 2016

Pic by MNED KAS Brussels

LRI attended a workshop in Brussels co-hosted by the Multinational Development Policy Dialogue of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and Climate Strategies on “Balancing responsibility and solidarity in international climate negotiations”.

Under the new climate agreement adopted in Paris, parties have moved away from the formal differentiation between developed and developing countries established under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. However, the historical responsibility of industrialised countries for greenhouse gas emissions remains an important issue in the negotiations. This could intensify as climate impacts become more severe, and developing countries increasingly need to take adaptation action.

The workshop was part of a project to explore how the international community may recognize historical responsibility while facilitating forward-oriented and country-driven climate action by all parties. It focused on one possible set of tools developed specifically to manage and resolve conflicts and facilitate changes to the existing regime – transitional justice processes.

Speakers presented approaches, tools and lessons learnt from transitional justice experiences in different jurisdictions (e.g. South Africa). Participants had different views on whether and to what extent these may be relevant in the climate change context. LRI director Christoph Schwarte gave a presentation on legal issues, including loss and damage. The debate will contribute to the development of politically oriented, concrete proposals for the international climate context.

17 February 2016

On 4 February over 60 participants reflected on some of the key take aways from Paris, including the setting of a new long term temperature goal, the pivotal role of nationally determined contributions (known as”NDCs”) and the increasing space given to non-state actors.

Discussions were led by a panel made up of Sam Bickersteth (Climate and Development Knowledge Network), James Cameron (Overseas Department Institute), Kate Cook (Matrix), Christoph Schwarte (LRI) and Philippe Sands QC (Matrix and UCL) as chair.

The audience was taken through some of the key substantive elements and features of the Agreement, such as as its focus on mitigation, inclusiveness, progressive approach, emphasis on scrutiny and accountability and how the Agreement strengthens the global response to climate change, and the key priorities for 2016: agreeing details of the new international climate architecture as well as translating NDCs into real action through implementation of national plans and policies.

The presentations generated some lively discussions on issues around enforceability, what to do about free riders and opportunities for financial markets.

Ppt slides can be accessed at LRI on PA 4 Feb

11 December 2015

LRI lawyer Raj Bavishi (right) with clients/partners and the US Secretary of State

LRI lawyers are playing an important role as the Paris climate negotiations reach a critical point.

UK solicitor Raj Bavishi is on the Angolan delegation and represents the LDCs in a small group of legal and linguistic experts tasked by COP president Laurent Fabius with crafting and reviewing the wording of the agreement itself. The legal and linguistic group reviews draft text passed to it by the Presidency of the meeting for technical and legal conformity, but does not make any substantive changes. It also reviews translations of the text into the six official UN languages.

LRI volunteers are also working with individuals from numerous other delegations. In total LRI has so far received more than 70 legal enquiries from delegates to the talks. Some of these can be dealt with on-site, talking delegates through the issues at hand, but others need to be “farmed out” to LRI’s network of legal advisors in Europe, the US and Australia. The group is operating a “situation room” in London, staffed by lawyers who produce a daily update for clients and carry out initial research.

Some of these enquiries can be quite complicated, relating to the legal nature of loss and damage for example, while others relate to future domestic legislation that may be required to implement the Paris agreement.

Another LRI volunteer at COP21 is Caroline Dihl-Prolo, a lawyer from Brazil. Caroline studied environmental law in London and joined LRI in 2013 as an intern. She’s worked in LRI’s situation room, carrying out research and administration for the group, and has attended the last 3 COPs as a liaison officer. In Paris, Caroline is assisting Achala Abeysinghe, the legal and technical advisor to the LDC group in the talks, by attending informal meetings of nations to discuss specific issues in the text, and advising on drafting and interpretation.

“I think my advice is more useful when it comes to the very legal matters, like the preamble and how it will guide the agreement to come; entry into force, ratification, and issues related to the structure of the agreement,” Caroline says. “But of course I’m very keen on helping delegations understand what their options are in the form of the commitments and contributions under the agreement.”