ClimaSlow ERC

Slowing Down Climate Change: Combining Climate Law and Climate Science to Identify the Best Options to Reduce Emissions of Short-lived Climate Forcers in Developing Countries (2017-2022)

The ClimaSlow project is funded by the European Research Council for 2017-2022.

The Principal Investigator is Professor Kati Kulovesi. Other participating CCEEL members are Senior Researcher Dr Yulia Yamineva, Senior Lecturer Dr Tuula Honkonen, Researcher Maria Eugenia Recio and PhD Researcher Veera Pekkarinen. The ClimaSlow project also involves the UEF Atmospheric Aerosol Physics research group. Participating group members include Professor Kari Lehtinen, Senior Researcher Dr Thomas Kühn and PhD Researcher Tuuli Miinalainen.

The project can be followed on Twitter as @ClimaSlowERC.

The ClimaSlow project opens new interdisciplinary horizons to identify the best opportunities to strengthen the global regulatory framework for reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), with particular attention to developing countries as projected key sources of future SLCP emissions. The project’s case study countries are China, India, Chile and Mexico.  

In contrast to traditional legal analysis that would focus on one legal system or instrument, the project studies the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks comprehensively, considering the international, regional, national and transnational levels. It seeks to identify various options, to strengthen the global legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to SLCPs. In addition to providing information on best options to regulate SLCPs, this novel, comprehensive approach helps scholars to improve their understanding of the implications of ongoing changes in global legal landscape and further develop global climate change law as an emergent theoretical approach.

Publications by the ClimaSlow project include the following:

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Tuuli Miinalainen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Lipponen, Antti-Pekka Hyvärinen, Vijay Kuman Soni, Kari E.J. Lehtinen, and Thomas Kühn (2023). Assessing the climate and air quality effects of future aerosol mitigation in India using a global climate model combined with statistical downscaling, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 23, 3471–3491, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3471-2023
• Tuuli Miinalainen, Harri Kokkola, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, and Thomas Kühn (2021). Comparing the Radiative Forcings of the Anthropogenic Aerosol Emissions From Chile and Mexico. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, e2020JD033364. (Open Access).
• Tuula Honkonen (2020). Tackling Cookstove Emissions in India: Towards an Enabling Policy Environment and More Effective Legal Solutions. Law, Environment and Development Journal 16, 103-121. (Open Access).
• Veera Pekkarinen (2020). Going beyond CO2: Strengthening Action on Global Methane Emissions under the UN Climate Regime. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 29(3), 464-478. (Open Access).
• Thomas Kühn, Kaarle Kupiainen, Tuuli Miinalainen, Harri Kokkola, Ville-Veikko Paunu, Anton Laakso, Juha Tonttila, Rita Van Dingenen, Kati Kulovesi, Niko Karvosenoja and Kari E.J. Lehtinen (2020). Effects of Black Carbon Mitigation on Arctic Climate. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 20, 5527–5546. (Open Access).
• Kati Kulovesi, Michael Mehling and Elisa Morgera (2019). Global Environmental Law: Context and Theory, Challenge and Promise. Transnational Environmental Law 8(3), 405-435. (Open Access).
• Yulia Yamineva and Zhe Liu (2019). Cleaning the Air, Protecting the Climate: Policy, Legal and Institutional Nexus to Reduce Black Carbon Emissions in China. Environmental Science & Policy 95, 1-10. (Open Access).
• Yulia Yamineva and Seita Romppanen (2017). Is Law Failing to Address Air Pollution? Reflections on International and EU Developments. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 26(3), 189-200. (Open Access).

Book chapters

• Yulia Yamineva (2021). China in the Arctic: Climate agenda as a space for multilateral cooperation amidst great power competition. In research report ‘Nordic-Baltic connectivity with Asia via the Arctic: Assessing opportunities and risks’, by Estonian Foreign Policy Institute of the International Centre for Defense and Security, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Finnish Institute of International Affairs, September 2021. 
• Sanna Kopra, Liisa Kauppila, Timo Koivurova, Adam Stepien and Yulia Yamineva (2020). China, Climate Change and the Arctic Environment. In Timo Koivurova and Sanna Kopra (Eds.), Chinese Policy and Presence in the Arctic. Leiden: Brill. 
• Kati Kulovesi (2020). Exploring Transnational Legal Orders: Using Transnational Environmental Law to Strengthen the Global Regulation of Black Carbon for the Benefit of the Arctic Region. In Veerle Heyvaert and Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli (Eds.), Research Handbook in Transnational Environmental Law. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. (Open Access).

Journal special issues

• Seita Romppanen and Yulia Yamineva (Eds.) (2017). Special Issue on International and EU Law on Air Pollution. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 26(3). 

Policy outputs

• Yulia Yamineva (2020). Reducing China’s Black Carbon Emissions: An Arctic Dimension. In China and its Arctic Trajectories: The Arctic Institute’s China Series Report.
• Yulia Yamineva (2019). Chapter 3 ‘Closing the Implementation Gap: Bringing Clean Air to the Region’. In UNEP (Ed.), Air Pollution in the Asia-Pacific: Science-based Solutions. Nairobi: UNEP. 

Blog posts

• Yulia Yamineva (2021). Cleaning the air, protecting the climate: Policy, legal and institutional nexus to reduce black carbon emissions in China. ACCC Blog Post, 24 May 2021.
• Veera Pekkarinen (2021). Using the Paris Agreement to Strengthen Action on Methane. IISD SDG Knowledge Hub Blog Post, 13 January 2021.
• Yulia Yamineva (2017). Time for a Holistic Approach to Climate Change and Air Pollution in International Law. Centre for Climate, Environmental and Energy Law Blog, October 2017. 

Masters thesis

• Niklas Löther, The long debate around short-lived climate pollutants : history of a policy concept and its impact on global and environmental governance, June 2022.

^{Give feedback | Data Protection | Accessibility}