CLIMATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE

General information

Addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change and unsustainable behaviour in the wider sense requires us to work together as a global community and find innovative ways of dealing with the obstacles we face. The CLGI will focus in particular on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goal 13. The Paris Agreement, negotiated during the 21st Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, was adopted by consensus in December 2015. Moving to the implementation phase raises many challenges and a complex agenda for climate law and governance actors. Moreover, In September 2015 world leaders adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . Acknowledging the UNFCCC as the primary intergovernmental forum for negotiating a response to climate change, the participants agreed Goal 13 as a key component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . Goal 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

While the CLGI itself was founded in 2015 in wake of the Paris negotiation its roots can be traced back to 2005 to Montreal, the first COP for the Kyoto Protocol. Since then the Center for International Sustainable Development Law from which CLGI emerged has organized side-events and workshops on climate law and governance. This includes symposia and side-events on Strengthening Climate Cooperation, Compliance and Coherence (2005), Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change: Emerging Legal Regimes & Mechanisms (2006), Law & governance of climate change adaptation & vulnerability (2007), Building the Low-Carbon Economy beyond Copenhagen: The Global Law & Policy Research Agenda An International Seminar (2009), Developing sustainable and equitable legal frameworks for the global low carbon economy (2010), Legal Preparedness for Climate Compatible Development: Securing REDD+ (2011), Public Participation and Climate Governance (2012), Rights, Governance & Climate Change (2013), Innovations for Sustainable Energy: Smart Energy Path Planning, Law and Governance (2014) and Climate Law and Governance: Future Practices and Prospects (2015).