Climate change in court
Green People, Green Judges on climate lawsuits all around the world
The Centre for Global Challenges organised on 9 March its largest event to date: Green People, Green Judges. Originally scheduled for last December but delayed due to a winter storm, the circumstances were now bright and warm, which was reflected by the large number of attendees.
The event, which took place in the beautiful Gasthuis Leeuwenbergh, was opened by Janneke Plantenga, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance. After this Sybe de Vries, the Academic Director of the Centre, officially welcomed the guests and introduced the five speakers, who had all prepared an 8-minute pitch on the subject of climate change litigations: citizen's initiatives around the world to battle climate change in court.
The speakers were, in order of appearance: Gaute Eiterjord, Director of Friends of the Earth Norway, Dr. Liesbeth van de Grift (pdf presentation), Assistant Professor of History of International Relations at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, Ugo Taddei (pdf presentation), Lawyer at Client Earth and involved in climate change litigation throughout Europe, Dr. Edward Brans (pdf presentation), Lawyer at Pels Rijcken and representative of the Dutch state in the Milieudefensie clean air litigation and Dr. Naomi van Steenbergen, researcher at the Ethics Institute at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视. Each of the speakers offered interesting insights from their respective fields of expertise.
After the pitches, Professor Javier Couso, Professor at the 木瓜福利影视 Diego Portales in Chile and visiting professor at SIM/the Centre for Global Challenges, provided the first response from the audience, after which the floor was opened for discussion. The event ended with drinks, which many used to further debate the subject.
The Centre for Global Challenges wants to extend its thanks to the speakers for their interesting presentations, and hopes to welcome the attendees to future events.