On 2 March, Mrs Joëlle DE SEPIBUS, Senior Research Fellow, World Trade Institute, Lecturer of International and European Environmental Law, Oeschger Institute, University of Bern, gave a lecture on "Is there a silver lining to the failure to strike a global climate deal? Outcome and perspectives of the December Copenhagen Conference".
The lecture takes place in room E (Dijver) from 2.00 p.m. till 3.30 p.m. and was organised by the European Legal Studies Department.
The original purpose of the Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) had been to complete the negotiations on a new international agreement on climate change to come into force in 2013 after the end of the Kyoto’s first commitment period. The negotiations finally ended with the so-called “Copenhagen Accord” which was merely “taken note of” by the COP due to the overt challenge of five of some 193 countries present at the conference (Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan and Venezuela). After its release, President Obama characterised the new Accord as “an unprecedented breakthrough” whereas the Swedish EU Presidency called it “a disaster”.
The purpose of this talk was to discuss the main results of the Accord and to attempt to disentangle its consequences for the future international climate regime. Before turning to the substance of the Accord Joëlle de Sépibus set out the international legal framework on climate change and gave some insight on the negotiations process which was launched by the Bali Action Plan in 2007.