Lecture Series Recordings

This lecture series provided an expert overview of the key issues that have been discussed during COP 26/CMA 3, in the context of past COPs and the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement legal framework. This series offers expert insight into the working mechanisms and procedure of climate change COPs, how they function and what to expect from COP 26/CMA 3 from specific issues that are on the agenda.

• Lecture 1 - Daniel Bodansky, 'Road to Paris and Glasgow'
• Lecture 2 - David Freestone, 'Financial and Funding Mechanisms under the Climate Regime' 
• Lecture 3 - Christina Voigt, 'Accountability in the Paris Agreement (Transparency and Compliance)'
• Lecture 4 - Petra Minnerop, 'The Paris Agreement Rule Book: Adding a Glasgow Chapter to the Katowice Package'
• Lecture 5 - Stephen Minas, 'Advancing Technology Development and Transfer under the Paris Agreement'
• Lecture 6 - Saleemul Huq, 'The perspective of the Least Developed Countries on Loss and Damage from Climate Change'
• Lecture 7 - Selam Kidane Abebe, 'Global Goal for Adaptation for Raising Ambition under the Paris Agreement'
• Lecture 8 - Nilufer Oral, 'Streamlining the Ocean into COP 26 and beyond'
• Lecture 9 - Latanya Rajamani, 'Equity and Fairness in International Climate Change Law'
• Lecture 10 - Linda Siegele, 'The Compensation Question: Loss and Damages'

Lecture 1 - Professor Daniel Bodansky, ‘Road to Paris and Glasgow’

Daniel Bodansky is a Regents’ Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University and his talk is the launch lecture of The Road to COP 26/CMA 3 Preparatory Lecture Series.

Lecture 2 - David Freestone, 'Financial and Funding Mechanisms under the Climate Regime'

David Freestone is a Professorial Lecturer and Visiting Scholar at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. teaching International Climate Change Law. He is also the Executive Secretary of the Sargasso Sea Commission. He is the founding Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law.

Lecture 3 - Christina Voigt, 'Accountability in the Paris Agreement (Transparency and Compliance)' 

Dr. Christina Voigt is a renowned expert in international environmental law and professor of law at the University of Oslo. Professor Voigt has published widely on legal issues of climate change, environmental multilateralism and sustainability and is a frequent speaker at international and national events. From 2009-2018, she also worked as legal adviser and negotiator for the Government of Norway in the UN climate negotiations.

Professor Voigt is currently co-chair of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee. She is also chair of the Climate Change Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law and a member of the IUCN Climate Change Task Force.

Lecture 4 - Petra Minnerop, 'The Paris Agreement Rulebook: Adding a Glasgow Chapter to the Katowice Package'

Dr Petra Minnerop is Professor of International Law at Durham Law School. She is the founder and the current Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy. Her research areas are international environmental law and the legal development under the international climate change regime. She also works at the intersection of law and science.

Lecture 5 - Stephen Minas ,'Advancing Technology Development & Transfer under the Paris Agreement'

Dr Stephen Minas is associate professor at the School of Transnational Law, Peking University and senior research fellow at the Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London, where Stephen completed a PhD in law. Stephen is Chair of the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee and a member of the EU team in UN climate negotiations. Stephen has published and taught widely in the areas of international, EU, climate change and energy law, with a focus on technology and finance.

Lecture 6 - Saleemul Huq, 'Perspective of the least developed countries on Loss and Damage from Climate Change'

Professor Saleemul Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) as well as Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom as well as the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and also Senior Adviser on Locally Led Adaptation with Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) headquartered in the Netherlands.

He is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most Vulnerable developing countries and has been a lead author of the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he also advises the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Lecture 7 - Selam Kidane Abebe, 'Global Goal for Adaptation for Raising Ambition under the Paris Agreement'

Selam Kidane Abebe is an international environmental law expert and works as a legal advisor to the Africa Group Negotiators (AGN) for the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She led the legal and procedural negotiations of the Paris Agreement for the African Group and negotiated the rule book of the Paris Agreement. Selam is a member of the Article 15 Committee of the Paris Agreement to facilitate implementation and promote compliance with the provisions of the Agreement.

Lecture 8 - Nilufer Oral, 'Streamlining the Ocean into COP 26 and Beyond'

Nilüfer Oral is Director of the Centre of International Law (CIL) at the National University of Singapore and is a member of the law faculty at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey. She is member of the UN International Law Commission and Co-chair of the Study Group on Sea-level rise in relation to international law. Nilufer Oral is a Distinguished Fellow of the Law of the Sea Institute at Berkeley Law (University of California Law Berkeley); Senior Fellow of the National University of Singapore Law School; and Honorary Research Fellow at University of Dundee. She is a member of the IUCN-WCEL Steering Committee.

Lecture 9 - Lavanya Rajamani, 'Equity and Fairness in International Climate Change Law'

Lavanya Rajamani is a Professor of International Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and Yamani Fellow in Public International Law at St Peter's College, Oxford. Lavanya specializes in the field of international environmental and climate change law. 

She is also lead editor of the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (OUP, 2021). She serves as Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, and has served as a consultant and legal advisor, among others, to the UNFCCC Secretariat and Alliance of Small Island States. She was part of the UNFCCC core drafting and advisory team for the 2015 Paris Agreement, and advises governments and international organizations on matters of international climate change law and policy.

Lecture 10 - Linda Siegele, 'Loss and Damages: The Compensation Question'

Linda Siegele is an environmental lawyer based in the UK. She has been involved in the United Nations climate change negotiating process since 2005 with a special focus on the issues of adaptation and loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change. Linda is particularly familiar with the climate change concerns of small island developing States and least developed countries, having directly supported country delegations through the provision of strategic legal and policy advice.

In addition, Linda teaches on environmental law subjects at the post-graduate level and has conducted a number of negotiation skills training sessions for a wide range of developing country groups in Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and Southeast Asia. She has written extensively on a variety of environmental law topics and is currently working toward a PhD in the area of green building regulation.

A Post-COP26 Roundtable: Reflections and Looking Ahead (Part 1)

A Post-COP26 Roundtable: Reflections and Looking Ahead (Part 2)