News

LRI talks about pro bono on Planet Pod

2 July 2018

What is pro bono ? who are the main beneficiaries ? Why do lawyers (and others) do it and what are the rewards ?

These were some of the questions raised in last week’s Planet Pod weekly podcast.  To discuss these, Pascale Bird, advice coordinator at LRI, was joined by Olga Hancock, pro bono manager at Simmons & Simmons and Charlotte Davis of Christian Aid. Deconstructing some of the myths around pro bono, they talked about the opportunities it provides for large commercial organisations to engage in issues they would not otherwise be exposed to, how the legal sector has inspired others to get involved with the idea of giving their skills and how lawyers can use pro bono as a tool for enhancing sustainability. Want to find out more ? listen to the full podcast here: https://theplanetpod.com/planet-pod-on-pro_bono/

UNFCCC negotiations training and national level workshops in Sri Lanka

19 June 2018

Representatives from 12 Asian and Pacific countries attended two workshops held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. One was the ecbi regional workshop aimed at training new and junior negotiators from developing countries so that they may participate more effectively in the UN climate negotiations. Organised in partnership with the local NGO Janathakshan, the sessions, many of them delivered by seasoned LDC negotiators, combined presentations on some key thematic areas of the Paris Agreement with practical exercises and tips to help equip participants for the negotiations. Through break out groups and mock negotiations, participants were encouraged to engage and exchange, and fully did so.

 

This was helped by them having had the opportunity to get acquainted with each other over the previous two days, during a climate change experience sharing and lesson learning forum, organised by IIED and Janathakshan, and a new addition to the ecbi regional training programme. The forum started with a field trip to share lessons and experience of a flood mitigation area and urban space development initiative near Colombo, and was followed by an informal forum in which participants were invited to talk about their country’s experience in planning for a low carbon resilient development, translating their priorities into implementable projects and programmes and accessing funds, as well as the institutional and capacity challenges they face in implementing their NDCs. LRI presented on tools available to law and policy makers responsible for developing and reviewing climate-related laws and plans, including the climate legislation portal it is currently developing.

LRI booklet launched in Cameroonian Parliament

17 June 2018

On Wednesday, 13 June 2018, an LRI publication on initial suggestions for developing legislative interventions on climate change through public consultations was officially launched in the National Assembly of Cameroon in Yaounde.

Following the Cameroonian equivalent of Prime Minister’s question time, the second item on Parliament’s agenda for the afternoon was the presentation of 2 publications: “Science, Economics and Politics of Climate Change” by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and “Bottom-up climate legislation in Cameroon” by LRI.

The LRI booklet can be downloaded at https://legalresponse.org/further-resources/briefing-papers/ The Cameroonian Minister of the Environment congratulated LRI and its partners on the publication and called it “important and timely guidance on how to contribute to the global fight against climate change”. He emphasised, in particular, the importance of participatory approaches in developing law and policy. In Cameroon – he stated – environmental and social impact assessments are, therefore, a legal requirement for many projects, plans and strategies.

Augustine Njamnshi, a co-author of both publications, presented their main content and findings to around 50 MPs in the National Assembly. The event was organised by the Cameroonian Climate Change Working Group, a member of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and hosted by the MP Awudu Cyprian Mbaya who is also the executive chair of the Pan African Parliamentarian Network on Climate Change.

MPs preparing for the group photograph

Law Society Excellence Awards

3 April 2018

LRI outstanding work and innovative model received a  high accolade at the prestigious Law Society Excellence Awards that took place in October 2017.

The law firm Simmons & Simmons, who has been one of our key supporters over the years – giving LRI office space for hosting the Situation Room and for its employees, and providing many hours of invaluable pro bono legal support  – was nominated for an award in the pro bono category. We were delighted to be chosen by them as showcase for this work. Although not the winners, being finalists was in itself a recognition for their exceptional contribution to pro bono work, as was their selection as one of the Law Society video case studies celebrating excellence in law, which you can watch here.

 

LRI at COP23

5 December 2017

Hosted by Fiji, the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP23) took place in Bonn on 6 -17 November 2017. The meeting focused on developing the so-called Paris Rule book, the rules and processes necessary to turn the Paris Agreement into climate action, whilst also recognising the importance of pre-2020 action and ambition. The main outcomes of the conference are contained in the Fiji Momentum for Implementation.

An LRI team of eight lawyers attended the COP over the two-week period, talking delegates through legal issues and forwarding more complex legal queries to expert advisers from the LRI network. The work of LRI generally reflects the developments and discussions in the negotiations. Thus, many queries related to the processes and mechanisms required for operationalizing the Paris Agreement, whilst others concerned domestic implementation. In total, LRI recorded nearly 40 formal queries, the majority from least developed countries (LDCs) and the LDC group, with the rest coming from other developing countries and civil society observer organisations.

LRI was also invited to showcase a new web based portal being developed in collaboration with UN Environment at a UNFCCC side event on tools to support the parties with implementation of the Paris Agreement and their NDC and at and at an expert roundtable at the ‘Climate Law and Governance Day’.

Reflecting on her week in Bonn as an LRI volunteer Caroline Dihl Prolo, the head of Environment at the Brazilian law firm Stocche Forbes, commented: “This is my fifth COP as an LRI liaison officer and each year it is clearer that vulnerable countries really need legal support, due to their limited human resources and the tremendous complexity of the process and the legal issues that are posed. If there were more lawyers on the ground and more organisations like LRI, discussions would be more inclusive and this would translate into progress on substance – rather than procedural disputes. Still I can see the impact in the work I do, and this is a priceless feeling.”