Five takeaways on international climate cooperation from the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on mitigation
By Harro van Asselt, Professor of Climate Law and Policy. First published in the NDC Aspects blog on 7 April 2022. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscores once again why this is a critical decade for climate action: to keep global warming below 1.5°C with a chance of more than […]
Just Transition in national climate law: Lessons from Scotland
Photo by Carl Jorgensen on Unsplash Nicola Sharman The concept of just transition is going to play an increasingly prominent role in climate mitigation policy as global decarbonisation processes gather pace. Legal recognition of the concept remains limited, yet Scotland – where COP26 takes place – has positioned itself as a global leader in this […]
Where do countries stand in UN climate negotiations after 2020?
By Dr Yulia Yamineva, Senior Researcher, and Dr Jen Allan, Lecturer at Cardiff University, UK. Photo credit: IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin The UN Convention on Climate Change is holding its intersessional meetings from 31 May to 17 June in a virtual mode. This is the first official meeting since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic as only […]
Shell-shocked: a watershed moment for climate litigation against fossil fuel companies
Harro van Asselt, Kati Kulovesi, Mikko Rajavuori and Annalisa Savaresi. Photo by Marc Rentschler on Unsplash. The Netherlands is no longer known just for its tulips, windmills and bicycles. Its latest export product is climate change litigation. Following 1.5 years after the Dutch Supreme Court in Urgenda decided that the Dutch government should step up its emission reduction […]
Sámi Council resistance to a solar radiation management experiment highlights the complex questions surrounding climate geoengineering and consent
By Aaron Cooper. Aaron Cooper is a PhD researcher in Law at the CCEEL of the University of Eastern Finland, and lecturer in Law at Coventry University. This blog post is based on an original analysis piece posted on the Arctic Institute website. Photo by Timo Horstschaefer on Unsplash In a recent Reddit ‘Ask Me […]
Opening the black box of transparency in multilateral climate governance
by Harro van Asselt and Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb. Photo by Nuno Silva on Unsplash. Transparency has become a buzzword of the 21st century, including in the context of global governance. International regimes governing a wide array of societal challenges, from arms control to trade, and human rights to the environment, have created formal and informal processes […]
Using the Paris Agreement to strengthen action on methane
by Veera Pekkarinen. This article was first published in IISD/SDG Knowledge Hub on 13 January 2021. Photo by veeterzy on Unsplash. Methane can be characterized as a “super-pollutant”. While it stays in the atmosphere only for 12 years, it is up to 86 times more powerful in warming the climate in the short term than the most […]
Introducing the CCEEL Blog and CCEEL activities on climate law
Kati Kulovesi, Co-Director of CCEEL and Professor of International Law. Harro van Asselt, Professor of Climate Law and Policy. The past few weeks have been remarkable for the evolution of international climate law. A month ago, the Paris Agreement obtained the required ratifications both in terms of the number of countries and their share of global greenhouse gas […]