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1. Biodiversity Law and Governance Day (BLGD 2024)
This year’s Biodiversity Law and Governance Day (BLGD 2024) will be held online on Saturday, 26 October 2024 during the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia.
The BLGD 2024 will feature distinguished plenaries, celebratory launching events, more than 8 world-class specialist panels and workshops, as well as the presentation of the 2024 Biodiversity Law and Governance Global Leadership Awards.
Overview
BLGD 2024 aims to inspire and optimise legal and institutional reform for achieving current National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) under the CBD, responding to 2024 review of such Action Plans and their alignment to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The objectives of the symposium include identifying and sharing innovative international, national, and local law and governance challenges, mechanisms and good practices relating to global efforts to address biodiversity conservation, its sustainable use and its loss prevention. By convening esteemed legal and public policy experts, judges, negotiators, professors and practitioners from around the world that are committed to implementing the GBF, BLGD 2024 seeks to catalyse knowledge exchange and co-generate new biodiversity law and governance scholarship, insights and approaches, facilitating new dialogue and partnerships. The symposium further aims to strengthen capacity and collaboration among the biodiversity law and governance community of practice to implement the GBF and COP outcomes, supporting achievement of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
BLGD 2024 Themes
The BLGD 2024 will focus on the following key themes, which have been identified in consultation with the BLGI Programme Committee based on the vision and goals to enhance ambition and enable action set by Colombia as the CBD COP16 Presidency:
Advancing legal elements of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: COP 16 will be the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada. Parties are expected to show how their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) have aligned to the framework. Much can be learned from law and governance reform approaches that acknowledge Indigenous law and philosophies, and integrate the different value systems that nature embodies, in their implementation of the GBF.
Enhancing nature-based solutions, sustainable use of natural resources and synergies with biodiversity and other treaties: Many international treaties and processes are key for biodiversity and ecosystems, including the CITES, the Convention on Migratory Species, the Ramsar Wetlands Convention, the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement, the UNCCD, the oceans and water conventions, human rights covenants and accords, trade and investment agreements, and also indigenous treaties. Parties to the CBD and international organizations must strengthen and improve cooperation so as to enhance synergies and address intersections between regimes.
Strengthening the effectiveness of the Nagoya Protocol and addressing genetic information: The Nagoya Protocol entered into force in 2014. Many lessons can be learned from recent national and regional Access and Benefit Sharing (“ABS”) agreements implementation and capacity building efforts. For these agreements to be truly equitable and fair, and agreements to be meaningful and accountable, these concepts should mean the same to all involved, providers and users alike.
More About the BLGD 2024
Biodiversity Law and Governance Day 2024 builds on a series of special events co-hosted by key partners from the Biodiversity Law and Governance Initiative (BLGI) during the CBD biodiversity conferences since the COP13 in Cancun, Mexico, to mobilise the international law and governance community to help implement the CBD and most recently, the GBF in the context of the global Sustainable Development Goals. This global international symposium aims to facilitate meaningful dialogue between COP delegates, observers and stakeholders, also keen students, with an interest in national and international law and governance related to biodiversity protection, including government representatives and leaders, leading international and domestic legal practitioners, and renowned legal experts.
About the Biodiversity Law and Governance Initiative (BLGI)
The Biodiversity Law and Governance Initiative (BLGI) is a partnership, led by a coalition from across the global biodiversity law and governance community including university law and governance schools, expert institutes, international organisations, legal offices, law associations and firms, foundations and civil society organisations.
BLGI focuses on legal and institutional responses to the challenges facing biodiversity and seeks to complement and coordinate ongoing efforts in this field. The core activities of the BLGI are centred on three main pillars. First, the BLGI Secretariat organises and coordinates knowledge sharing events alongside the UNCBD processes and beyond. Second, the initiative provides support and outreach for the capacity building and biodiversity action efforts of its partners. The final pillar of the initiative focuses on involving students and young people from different regions in its activities so as to enhance long term capacity strengthening.
Read more: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/biodiversity-law-and-governance-day-2024-tickets-1020394877547?aff=oddtd...
2. Climate Law and Governance Day (CLGD 2024)
This year's Climate Law and Governance Day (CLGD 2024) will be held on Friday, 15 November 2024 during the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
This full-day global symposium will feature distinguished plenaries, celebratory launching events, and more than 8 world-class specialist panels and workshops. To reduce barriers and encourage global participation, this year’s Climate Law and Governance Day will be held entirely online via Zoom.
Overview
CLGD 2024 aims to inspire and optimise legal and institutional reform for achieving current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, responding to 2024 Global Stocktake outcomes and increasing the ambition of the next round of NDCs. The objectives of the symposium include identifying and sharing innovative international, national, and local law and governance challenges, mechanisms and good practices relating to global efforts to address climate change. By convening esteemed legal and public policy experts, judges, negotiators, professors and practitioners from around the world that are committed to implementing the Paris Agreement, CLGD 2024 seeks to catalyse knowledge exchange and co-generate new climate law and governance scholarship, insights and approaches, facilitating new dialogue and partnerships. The symposium further aims to strengthen capacity and collaboration among the climate law and governance community of practice to implement the Doha Amendment, Paris Agreement and COP outcomes, supporting achievement of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
CLGD 2024 Themes
This year’s symposium will focus on the following four key themes, which have been identified in consultation with the CLGI Programme Committee based on the vision and goals to enhance ambition and enable action set by Azerbaijan as the UNFCCC COP29 Presidency, as informed by the UNFCCC 60th Subsidiary Bodies meetings in June 2024:
Operationalising the Paris Agreement: Contributing to the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), Global Goal on Adaptation, Article 6 Market and Non-market Approaches, Article 9 Loss and Damage Fund, transparency, technology, capacity-building, through the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement implementation architecture (COP/SBs, global dialogues, expert groups, implementation and compliance committee), UNCLOS and other international regimes.