SHARING KNOWLEDGE – STRENGTHENING CAPACITY
SUPPORTING SYNERGIES – ENHANCING CLIMATE ACTION
About
The Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI) is a partnership, led by a coalition from across the global climate law and governance community including university law and governance schools, expert institutes, international organisations, legal offices, law associations and firms, foundations and civil society organisations.
WHAT WE DO
CLGI focuses on legal and institutional responses to the challenges posed by climate change and seeks to complement and coordinate ongoing efforts in this field. The core activities of the CLGI are centred on four main pillars:
First, the CLGI Secretariat organises and coordinates knowledge sharing events alongside the UNFCCC processes and beyond.
Second, the initiative provides support and outreach for the capacity building and climate action efforts of its partners.
Third, the initiative focuses on involving students and young people from different regions in its activities so as to enhance long term capacity strengthening.
Fourth, it hosts an online knowledge centre, which profiles useful knowledge resources and tools and serves as a research repository for the knowledge co-generation aspect of its work including a blog, research reports and a legal working paper series.
Our History
While the Climate Law and Governance Initiative was formally founded in 2015 in wake of the Paris negotiations, its roots can be traced back to 2005 to Montreal, the first COP for the Kyoto Protocol. Since then the Centre 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 (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)
- Climate Law and Governance: Future Practices and Prospects (2015)
Focus
Overall, CLGI focuses mainly 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.