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Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy
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Programme Outline

Date, time

Title

Lecturer

23 July 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Introduction to the International Climate Change Legal Regime (UNFCCC, Paris Agreement)

  • Science of climate change
  • International climate change legal framework – key provisions (UNFCCC, Paris Agreement)
  • Introduction to the COPs processes
  • Overview of climate change and other areas

Opening Addresses:

Dr Nilufer Oral, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore (CIL)

Prof Petra Minnerop Centre for Sustainable Law and Policy, Durham University (CSDLP)

Lecture: Danielle Yeow, CIL

6 August 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Regime

  • Paris Agreement Implementation and compliance committee established pursuant Art 15 of the Paris Agreement
  • Similarities and differences between PAICC and compliance mechanisms under prior multilateral environment agreements
  • PAICC’s contribution to global efforts to address climate change

Diana Tan

Attorney-General’s Chambers, International Affairs Division, Singapore

25 August 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Climate Change and Human Rights

  • Examines the close link between climate change and human rights from both global and regional perspectives
  • Explores how protection against the harmful effects of climate change is increasingly framed as a right of individuals and communities, and considers key institutional, legal, and substantive developments at the UN, ASEAN, Council of Europe, and regional levels.
  • Addresses the implications of climate change for both present and future generations

Prof HélèneTigroudja

CIL

8 September 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Climate Change – The ASEAN Approach

 

Latifahaida Abdul Latiff

ASEAN Secretariat

(To be confirmed)

17 September 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Innovation and Technological Change, and AI in the Climate Transition

  • Economics of technological change and the transition to clean technology
  • AI, energy innovation, and energy use
  • The sustainability of the technology itself and the climate footprint of AI
  • Digital governance and data sustainability 

Dr Pia Andres &

Dr Chien-Yi Chang

CSDLP

24 September

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Climate Change, Trade & Industrial Strategy

  • Mitigation at the margin: carbon pricing, carbon leakage, and the CBAM
  • Mitigation as technological transformation: new technologies and markets
  • The rise of green industrial policy
  • Technological transformation and asset stranding
  • Critical mineral supply chains: avoiding a new resource curse

Dr Pia Andres

CSDLP

06 October 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Energy Justice and Just Transition

  • Overview of energy justice and its importance in addressing energy poverty, inequality, and climate change
  • The tenets of energy justice and their operationalisation in practice
  • Just transition and the energy sector within the framework of international climate change law and policy
  • Evolution of just transition from origins to present role in global climate governance
  • Legal and policy imperatives from the UNFCCC regime and COP outcomes

Dr Mohammad Hazrati

& Nivedita S.

CIL

14 October 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Corporate Accountability, Human Rights and Climate Justice in Asia

  • Explores the intersection of climate justice, environmental justice, nature protection, and just-transition in Asia
  • Examines the incorporation of UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into global climate, biodiversity frameworks and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Reviews recent legal and policy developments across Asia including emerging mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence regimes, climate-related corporate accountability initiatives and national action plans on business and human rights
  • Considers interface between state’s climate and biodiversity actions and domestic and international economic law

Elizabeth Wu

CIL

22 October 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

16:00 – 17:30 SGT

Carbon Markets Governance: Compliance and Voluntary Markets

  • Overview of compliance (CCM) and voluntary carbon market (VCM) ecosystem and situating the new global climate market under Article 6 Paris Agreement within existing frameworks 
  • Key findings from existing CCM and VCM on project validation, crediting, market integrity, and key legal principles, including additionality, transparency, and the avoidance of double counting
  • Challenges in carbon market regulation
  • Specific issues pertaining to Article 6(2) and Article 6(4) market instruments, UN rules for carbon markets and multiple layers of governance

Prof Petra Minnerop

CSDLP

29 October 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

17:00 – 18:30 SGT

How Climate Change is Rewiring Marine Ecosystems and What We Can Do About It?

  • The importance of life in the sea to life on earth
  • Coastlines as liminal regions
  • How climate change (and other insults) is affecting marine ecosystems
  • Ways forward for coastlines in the UK and beyond

Dr John Bothwell

CSDLP

 

05 November 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

17:00 – 18:30 SGT

Decarbonization of the International Maritime Sector: the IMO regimes

  • Introductory background - maritime decarbonisation, shipping regulations and ocean governance legal framework
  • IMO institutional and legal architecture
  • Evolution of IMO climate strategy
  • IMO’s new Net Zero Framework
  • Discussion of major tensions eg equity for developing States, SIDS and LDCs, feasibility of alternative fuels, life-cycle emissions accounting, implementation and enforcement

Dr Zhen Sun

CIL

12 November 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

17:00 – 18:30 SGT

The Role of Climate Litigation in Fostering Mitigation, Adaptation and Loss and Damage

  • Diversity of climate litigation cases in terms of actors, fora, and legal bases, remedies
  • Main trends and types of climate litigation cases
  • In-depth discussion of rights-based litigation, with a special emphasis on KlimaSeniorinnen
  • Climate change cases before international courts

Dr Katalin Sulyok

CSDLP

19 November 2026

09:00 – 10:30 BST

17:00 – 18:30 SGT

Climate Change and Global Health

  • The emerging international legal architecture for climate and health
  • Recent climate-health jurisprudence and what it means for state duties
  • AI and digital infrastructure for climate-sensitive disease surveillance
  • Liability and governance for technology in public-health decisions under climate stress

Dr Chien-Yi Chang

CSDLP

26 November 2026

08:30 – 10:30 BST

16:30 – 17:30 SGT

COP31 Debrief Roundtable (2-hour special)

  • Overview of key outcomes
  • Critical evaluation of outcomes
  • Assessment of impact and expectations

Panellists:

Prof Petra Minnerop, CSDLP; Dr Nilüfer Oral, CIL: Prof Christina Voigt, University of Oslo; Prof Elisa Morgera CSDLP; & Diane Tan, AGC

Chair:

Danielle Yeow, CIL