United Nations
The Problem is Not Brazil. The Problem is COP
The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
āCrazy.ā Thatās how one young Brazilian described whatās happening in BelĆ©m to get ready for COP30, the annual UN climate negotiations which will take place in the Amazon this November. We struck up a brief conversation while I was visiting the Museu Afro Brasil in SĆ£o Paulo, a museum that chronicles the history and culture …
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CONTINUE READINGAre Climate Pledges on Life Support?
A Q&A with Catherine McKenna, who led the UN Secretary Generalās High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments of Non-State Entities.
Catherine McKenna knows firsthand how to persist in the face of pushback on climate policies. She was Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change during the first Trump Administration, and she led negotiations of that countryās first national climate plan over intense oil industry opposition. āThe oil sands sectorĀ andĀ the politicians they sponsor arenātĀ just greenwashingĀ a product,ā …
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CONTINUE READINGOne Bright Spot to COP29 in Baku
The outcome of this yearās U.N. climate conference was depressing. But there was some notable news regarding global methane emissions commitments.
Some have described the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku as āchallenging,ā āineffective,ā and ādisappointing.ā On the one hand, global greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, and the temperature for 2023 is the highest ever recorded. On the other hand, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from …
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CONTINUE READINGThe COP28 Halftime Report
Has the annual UN climate conference grown too big to function? Takeaways from Week 1 of COP28 in Dubai.
Weāve reached the midpoint of the annual, two-week international climate conference known as COP (for āconference of partiesā), so itās a good time to reflect on whatās gone down in Dubai.Ā Iām attending along with a delegation of UCLA Law students and colleagues here to follow a range of issues, from methane regulation to Chinaās …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Climate Overshoot Commission Releases its Report
A dozen global leaders weigh in on the risk of exceeding the Paris temperature targets and what it means for climate response.
The Climate Overshoot Commission recently completed its work, releasing its report at the United Nations last Thursday, September 14. This report comes in conjunction with the U.N. General Assembly and a collection of high-level climate and environment events, including the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, 18-19 Sept, and the Climate Ambition Summit, 20 Sept. The Climate …
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CONTINUE READINGHow California (and the World) Get to 30×30
COP15 in Montreal ended with a pledge to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030. UCLA student analysis shows what we can learn from Californiaās own plan.
By Ashley Anderson, Elana Nager, and Madeline Ward As 2022 wound down, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) convened in Montreal. The conference ended with around 190 of the worldās nations adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which establishes four goals and twenty-three targets to be achieved by 2030. The most prominent of these …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Protection and the Rule of Law
A Report from the Second Inter-American Congress on Environmental Rule of Law
I am back from attending theĀ Second Inter-American Congress on Environmental Rule of Law, hosted by the Supreme Court of Chile in Santiago and planned by the Organization of American States, UN Environment, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and other partners. For the past five years since the 2012 Rio+20 conference (20 years after the …
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CONTINUE READINGFrance Pushes for Global Pact on the Environment
President Macron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others support proposal for global environmental treaty
In Paris this past Saturday, a high-level group of legal experts endorsed a new proposal for a worldwide environmental treaty: the Global Pact on the Environment. President Emmanuel Macron of France gave the concluding speech at a launch event for the Pact (textĀ and videoĀ in French); other speakers included former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Laurent Fabius …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Ambitious international targets for sustainability
From September 25-27, the UN is hosting the high-level Sustainable Development Summit and, assuming all goes according to plan, adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Ā The result of years of negotiation with dedicated efforts at transparency and inclusion, the SDGs are a big deal in the international development community. They represent ambitious, consensus international targets …
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CONTINUE READINGLooking Back at COP20: How Should We Feel?
The Lima Accord lets countries name their own price to address climate change. But that doesn’t mean it failed.
As you’ve probably heard by now, this year’s UN climate change conference has produced an agreement, the “Lima Accord.” The Accord invitesĀ each of the nearly 200 negotiatingĀ countries to develop an “intended nationally determined contribution” (INDC) to reduce its GHG emissions. INDCs represent some step forward from each country–in the words of the Accord, “a progression …
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