ABA member Achinthi Vithanage is dedicated to the climate change cause, and she traveled to Bonn, Germany last month for a deep dive into how lawyers and bar associations can make progress on the goal of achieving net zero emissions.
July 01, 2024 Top Legal News of the Week
SEER member adds voice to Bonn climate conference
The conference was hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at its headquarters in Bonn and marks a midway point to the UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. Called COP29 (short for the 29th Annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), it is the major annual UN climate conference. Vithanage, a law professor and director of Environmental Law Programs at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, serves on the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Governing Council, the Climate Change Task Force and is former chair of the International Environmental & Resources Law Committee. She attended COP28 in Dubai, U.A.E. and accepted an invitation to be a panelist in Bonn.
Vithanage said a critical issue explored by the panel revolved around climate finance – the umbrella term for loans, investments and other forms of financial capital allocation – with many states disagreeing on the amount, the donor base, beneficiaries and more, which could ultimately derail progress. But despite such hurdles, she remains optimistic.
“One source of hope is the increasing number of lawyers and law associations from around the world that are coming together to take a more proactive role in addressing climate change,” Vithanage said. “Lawyers are negotiators, mediators, drafters and advisers. They serve at all levels in government, corporations and organizations, which means they are in powerful places to enact positive change. Our collective legal community has an opportunity to encourage and spur each other along this path. The ABA has been a leader in doing this, along with the International Bar Association, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Brazilian Bar Association and others.”
“Lawyers will play a pivotal role in achieving laws to reduce carbon pollution, promote clean energy and mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. She encourages lawyers to listen to the recording of the Bonn panel discussion to gain a full understanding of the underlying issues and the tools and resources available to all lawyers.
Vithanage added that an important foundational element of the 2015 Paris Agreement is education and training, and the Bonn conference included a dialogue on ACE – Action for Climate Empowerment – which highlights the role of education.
In the U.S., environmental programs in law schools are expanding with more courses on climate regulation being offered to match the evolution of the profession and the demand from law students, adding that there are more climate-change and ESG-related CLE courses offered by the ABA than ever before. “We need to keep building on this knowledge base,” she said.
Related links:
- ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources
- SEER resource page on UN Climate Change Conferences
- Trends Magazine article: “ABA at COP28: Calling on the legal community for a common cause”
- ABA Journal: “More lawyers – and clients – want to learn about sustainable development practices”