Climate Change webinar with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law

Ideas and Perspectives for a Climate Emergency Bill: Developing a Toolkit for Legislators to Tackle Climate Change Thursday 2nd April, 17:30-19:30

Alex Goodman has helped convene what is now a webinar with global participation on new legislation to tackle the climate emergency. Participants will include:

Chair: Richard Drabble QC, Landmark Chambers Speakers: Baroness Worthington, House of Lords Alex Goodman, Landmark Chambers and Rights: Community: Action Prof. Birgitte Egelund Olsen, Aarhus University, Denmark Marc Clément, Administrative Court of Lyon, France Closing remarks: Lord Carnwath CVO, Justice of The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

The webinar will look at legislative solutions across Europe and ideas for how the UK can add to its existing framework  which inter alia require accounting and budgeting for emissions. Alex has been working with a small NGO called Rights Community Action to develop a package of measures that would put duties on every organisation in both the public and the private sector to act to reduce emissions.

Alex will be speaking about ideas for a new Climate Emergency Act which would act as a framework that would require every organisation to audit its greenhouse gas emissions and require the adoption of solutions (that already exist but are not being rolled out) across public and private sectors.

More specific solutions involve the reduction of the use of private car and road haulage (pedestrianisation of all urban areas, move from road to rail requiring public infrastructure investment, electrification of rural transport systems); the reduction of air travel; changing the agricultural sector to reduce meat production and consumption; the reduction of consumption in sectors such as the clothing industry; and the elimination of fossil fuels from the electricity sector.

The proposed Climate Emergency Act would augment the existing Climate Change Act 2008 in the following ways:

• The duties this act will impose apply to all private and public organisations and are designed to lead to a new culture of action from every organisation at every level;
• The proposed Climate Emergency Act imposes duties on every organisation to engage with and take action to reduce GHGs, whereas the existing Climate Change Act is concerned mainly with responsibilities of the Secretary of State (which therefore has limited impact on how organisations and individuals behave);
• The Act will provide for enforcement against inaction by a newly appointed Climate Emergency Commission; this will be a body with significant powers to enforce through investigation and litigation.
• It provides a right to be free from the impacts of climate change which could be enforced by individuals and NGOs so as to compel action to be taken.

For full details and to book your place, click here.