Together with its international partners, GCILS organised the Climate Law & Governance Day 2021 symposium on 5 November 2021 during COP26 at the University of Glasgow. The symposium attracted over 1,100 registrants from over 120 countries in person and online across 16 specialist sessions and 3 high-level plenaries. Co-hosted by the University of Glasgow, the University of Cambridge and Strathclyde University, together with the Climate Law & Governance Initiative (CLGI), Climate Law and Governance Day 2021 provided an important opportunity to share ideas, debate trends and advances, and build legal momentum for climate action.
In cooperation with the University of Eastern Finland, GCILS co-hosted one of the 16 specialist sessions on the topic of ‘Rising Temperatures, Expanding Human Rights and the Obligations of States and Private Actors for Global Climate Justice’. In the first part of the panel, climate litigation specialists Dr Annalisa Savaresi and Dr Joana Setzer together with Lucy Maxwell and Sarah Mead, legal counsels of the Climate Litigation Network by the Urgenda Foundation, introduced the forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment focusing on human rights-based climate litigation. In the second part, Dr Kim Bouwer (Durham Law School), Dr Tracey Skillington (University of Cork) and GCILS’ Dr Lea Raible discussed the key arguments in favour and against an expansive interpretation of core human rights obligations as means of achieving climate justice at the global level, as well as the questions whether human rights can be used to address the accountability gap in climate change law and which potential guidance human rights experts can provide in order to identify and address the limits of current theories and practices. Dr Lea Raible’s excellent contribution to the panel discussion can be found here.
You can also watch recording from the CLGD below:
On this occasion we also would like to seize the opportunity to express our gratitude to all who participated in Climate Law and Governance Day 2021, especially the more than 20 University of Glasgow student volunteers who’s invaluable commitment contributed greatly to the successful outcome of the event.
(Photos by Kayla Hollingsworth, Tejas Rao)