To a full house at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, with guests from over a dozen countries watching online, on 20 February 2020 Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger explored key challenges and high ambition expectations for COP 26, forcing on the importance of climate justice, law and governance innovation in responding to the climate emergency and urgently implementing the global Paris Agreement.
Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, DPhil (Oxon), MEM (Yale), BCL & LLB (McGill), BA Hons, is Leverhulme Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge, Senior Director, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and Executive Secretary, UNFCCC CoP26 Climate Law & Governance Initiative, ILA Board of Directors member, and an award-winning expert jurist and professor of law and governance on sustainable development. In the lecture, she drew on three decades of experience negotiating international treaties, and supporting the efforts of countries from all regions of the world to implement their commitments.
Underlining how local and national law and governance instruments can help or hinder ambitious climate action, and noting the context of increasing public protest and climate litigation worldwide, Professor Cordonier Segger drew attention to the need for increased ambition under the leadership of the UK as the incoming COP Presidency. While many roadblocks remain, Professor Cordonier Segger emphasized the need for courage, commitment and compliance in bridging the chasms that currently prevent effective action, and finding millions of diverse pathway to enhance ambition and action worldwide.
The full lecture may be viewed at: https://climateseries.com/lectures/ccls2020/50-cop26-climate-justice-law
Author/editor of 22 books and over 80 papers, Professor Cordonier Segger also edits a Cambridge University Press series and serves on the editorial boards of five law journals. She is a full professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada; chairs several experts commissions and the Future Board of Bit Bio, a Cambridge biomedical firm; and as former General Counsel to UN treaty bodies, advises countries on implementing climate change, biodiversity, natural resources, trade and investment accords. She is also Fellow in Law / LLM DoS for Lucy Cavendish College, co-founder of CEENRG and CCCE, Affiliated Fellow of LCIL and laureate of the Justitia Fundamentum and other honours.
