2 June 2020

On Tuesday 26 May, we held a live web launch of our brand new ‘Guide to the Paris Agreement’. The event was chaired by Kiran Sura, Programme Lead of the Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA). A video of the event has now been released and is available to view here: https://youtu.be/TEskN8ZA2Ic

Speakers at the event described how the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement stands as an important commitment to climate action. However, despite this, the Paris Agreement has room for improvement, said Christoph Schwarte of LRI.

“In order to understand the Paris Agreement, it’s not enough to just read the provisions,” he said. “It is a living document and the parties already used the last years to add to the original text and in some places expand, go beyond it.” We try to flag those areas in the Guide and explain how law and policy makers on the ground can integrate the provisions of the Agreement into domestic rules and regulations.

Kishan Kumarsingh, of the Government and Trinidad and Tobago, added: “The guide by ecbi is timely and critical and it will inspire mutual trust and confidence which is something that has waned in the [UNFCCC] process.” “This new understanding will inform the evolving rule-making by giving a better grasp of the articles, what they mean and what they intended, and even more importantly, it [provides an] identification of the subtle nuances between the issues and the articles, which suffer and can be very difficult in the negotiations.” Mr Kumarsingh was Co-Chair in 2013-14 of the UNFCCC negotiating track that ultimately resulted in the Paris Agreement.

14 May 2020

Under the umbrella of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi), we have published a new Guide to the Paris Agreement

In 160 pages, the Guide describes the scope, structure and content of the Agreement in easily accessible language. It also contains an introduction to the UNFCCC process, the provisions of the Agreement, short summaries of potential implications for domestic law and policy in the developing countries as well as a comprehensive index.

We wanted to officially launch the Guide during the meeting of UNFCCC subsidiary bodies in Bonn from 1 to 11 June. But because of the postponement of the Bonn session (due to the Covid-19 pandemic) we will now have a web-based launch on Tuesday 26 May at 2 pm GMT. You can join us at: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/pucarbcv

The event will start at 14:00 GMT. That is 9 am Central Daylight Time (CDT) – 10 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) – 15:00 British Summer Time (BST) – 16:00 Central African Time (CAT) – 16:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST) – 19:30 Indian Standard Time (IST) – 22:00 China Standard Time (CST) & 22:00 Australian Western Standard Time (AWST).

Part of the launch will be an informal quiz about the Paris Agreement. Presenters include contributors to the Guide as well as Kishan Kumarsingh who co-chaired UNFCCC working group that developed the Paris Agreement from 2013-2014.

At the end of each short presentation the speaker will ask the audience one question. You can send the correct answers to enquiries@legalresponse.org The 25 first (correct) answers will receive a free hard copy of the Guide by mail.

1 April 2020

Under the umbrella of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi), Oxford Climate Policy and LRI have published a short Guide on the Paris Agreement: https://legalresponse.org/legaladvice/guide-to-the-paris-agreement/

The guide contains the provisions of the Paris Agreement, further explanations, a short summary of potential implications for domestic law and policy in the developing countries as well as a comprehensive index and an introduction to the UNFCCC process. It is an extended and updated version of the 2016 ecbi Pocket Guide to the Paris Agreement that takes into account subsequent decisions adopted by Parties in Katowice and Madrid.

The aim of the Guide is to describe the scope, structure and content of the Agreement in easily accessible language – rather than to provide an academic analysis. It has been made possible with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the UK’s Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA).

In his foreword, Kishan Kumarsingh, one of the co-chairs (2013-2014) of the ad-hoc working group (ADP) that developed the Paris Agreement states that the Guide “will go a very long way in facilitating Parties’ understanding of their Agreement”.

We hope you will find it useful too and we welcome any suggestions and comments on how to improve future editions. Please send your feedback to enquiries@legalresponse.org

29 January 2020

The global climate conference in December 2019 was supposed to take place in Santiago de Chile. In the lead-up to the event the Chilean government published a draft climate change bill (“Anteproyecto de ley marco de cambio climatico”). A coalition of Chilean civil society organizations requested LRI to help with the review of the draft bill. Our analysis focused on whether and to what extent the draft law reflected provisions of the Paris Agreement and Rules.

The Chilean government submitted a revised draft bill to parliament on 10 January 2020. On Monday 27 January, the Environment and National Resources Commission of the Chilean Senate – the upper house of parliament – consulted 3 experts on the bill: The environment minister, Carolina Schmidt, Greenpeace’s Campaigns Director for Chile Estefanía González and the Chilean lawyer Monserrat Madariaga who leads the legal work of the civil society coalition that had requested LRI’s advice.

The advice formed part of the documents submitted by Ms Madariaga to members of the Commission. During her presentation she referred to specific aspects of the LRI analysis, including draft provisions concerning loss and damage, access to information and public participation. We were happy to help the Chilean civil society coalition and very much hope that our advice will contribute to an equitable law that promotes low carbon development but also effectively protects people from the adverse effect of climate change and supports their adaption efforts.

15 January 2020

During the Madrid climate conference, LRI partnered with IE University – Madrid Campus to provide support to the LRI team in the negotiations.

Despite the fact that this was an exam period, over 70 students initially expressed an interest to volunteer and undertake additional research. Following a selection process around 30 law and international relations students – most of them undergraduates – took it in turn to meet during the conference and help LRI.

Their research involved looking into topics as varied as the relationship between the Biodiversity Convention and the UNFCCC, the procedure followed by the UN General Assembly for granting an institutional relationship to a non-UN affiliated organisation, and fossil fuel production subsidies in industrialised countries.

Whilst the main objective was to assist with the advice service, this was also an opportunity to raise awareness amongst the students of the UNFCCC process and negotiations and about the importance of the legal dimension of climate change. One of the students, Tabea Boglin, commented: “Being able to participate as a researcher for LRI during COP25 was very educational as I was able to research topics I was not familiar with and learn about how different countries approach these topics. Moreover, the lawyers we worked with were very passionate about their work and gave us insights into how COP25 functioned, while sharing various experiences they have had. Not only did this opportunity allow me to become more knowledgeable but it also allowed me to contribute this knowledge for a good cause”.