IUCN CEL´s Group of Young Professionals and the upcoming challenges for environmental lawyers
Posted 2:56 PM by br1 in Labels: Forum debate
It is difficult to think of a more challenging moment in history for environmental lawyers who are committed to the defense of the public interest and the environment. The world in which we live today faces two intertwined global challenges, namely the financial crisis and the ecological crisis. As the pressure over natural resources and biodiversity increases, the financial crisis has opened new spaces for us to reflect on, among various other issues, the current economic model and the mainstream visions of development. Also, existent democratic participatory mechanisms to involve civil society in decision-making processes in relation to impacts over the environment are being put into question. Moreover, the climate change challenge is fuelling the need for new ideas and innovation from every sector, across all levels of governments, as well as civil society.
All over the world, at global and local scales, debates are raging over an array of issues that involve the relation between the people and the environment, from GMOs to construction projects for large infrastructures, from land planning to the rights of isolated indigenous peoples, from the management of natural protected areas to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), and so on. The list seems to be endless and the need of lawyers who generally have a good knowledge on such set of topics appears to be imperative in many cases.
Faced with the complexity of the issues, we environmental lawyers have a clear choice to make. We can either lead or lag behind. In order to lead, collaboration is crucial. In this context, spaces such as the Commission of Environmental Law of the IUCN acquire special relevance. Several environmental lawyers have dedicated their lives and time to pave a path to promote more sustainable ways of living and have used environmental law as a tool to pursue this objective. It is now evident that various advances have been achieved, but more efforts are needed. Thus, the commitment and involvement of young environmental lawyers is essential.
To promote the involvement of the upcoming environmental lawyers that will lead this endeavour, the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) has created the CEL Group of Young Professionals which will implement mechanisms to involve young professionals with the CEL, to promote intergenerational collaboration and the sharing of ideas and proposals between its members.
Despite its recent creation, the Group of Young Professionals already has twelve members from countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru.
As a first activity, we have created this blog http://celgroupofyoungprofessionals.blogspot.com/ and we invite all the members to contribute by giving their impressions over the following question: what are the upcoming challenges for environmental lawyers? The idea is to define the main actions of the Group based on this survey.
Once again, we invite members of the CEL under 35 years old to be part of the Group and also we kindly request all of you, to disseminate this invitation to young environmental lawyers that are interested to be part of the CEL and to join this initiative.
Warm regards,
Bruno Monteferri
Chair of the CEL´s Group of Young Professionals
All over the world, at global and local scales, debates are raging over an array of issues that involve the relation between the people and the environment, from GMOs to construction projects for large infrastructures, from land planning to the rights of isolated indigenous peoples, from the management of natural protected areas to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), and so on. The list seems to be endless and the need of lawyers who generally have a good knowledge on such set of topics appears to be imperative in many cases.
Faced with the complexity of the issues, we environmental lawyers have a clear choice to make. We can either lead or lag behind. In order to lead, collaboration is crucial. In this context, spaces such as the Commission of Environmental Law of the IUCN acquire special relevance. Several environmental lawyers have dedicated their lives and time to pave a path to promote more sustainable ways of living and have used environmental law as a tool to pursue this objective. It is now evident that various advances have been achieved, but more efforts are needed. Thus, the commitment and involvement of young environmental lawyers is essential.
To promote the involvement of the upcoming environmental lawyers that will lead this endeavour, the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) has created the CEL Group of Young Professionals which will implement mechanisms to involve young professionals with the CEL, to promote intergenerational collaboration and the sharing of ideas and proposals between its members.
Despite its recent creation, the Group of Young Professionals already has twelve members from countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru.
As a first activity, we have created this blog http://celgroupofyoungprofessionals.blogspot.com/ and we invite all the members to contribute by giving their impressions over the following question: what are the upcoming challenges for environmental lawyers? The idea is to define the main actions of the Group based on this survey.
Once again, we invite members of the CEL under 35 years old to be part of the Group and also we kindly request all of you, to disseminate this invitation to young environmental lawyers that are interested to be part of the CEL and to join this initiative.
Warm regards,
Bruno Monteferri
Chair of the CEL´s Group of Young Professionals
9 comment(s) to... “IUCN CEL´s Group of Young Professionals and the upcoming challenges for environmental lawyers”
9 comments:
Please, feel free to make your comments on spanish or english.
I look forward to participating in this group of young professionals, and I invite any members of this group to contact the Ecojustice-University of Ottawa Environmental Law Clinic where I teach and litigate. We are always glad to receive colleagues from around the world, and we are located right beside the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law's Secretariat.
Will Amos
http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=450&Itemid=154
http://www.ecojustice.ca/about-ecojustice/staff/staff-lawyer-will-amos
Comment from Proffessor Richard L. Ottinger:
"The most urgent issues for environmental lawyers to work on are those related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. A few pirority subjects:
Laws to promote energy efficiency -- decoupling utility profits from sales; pay as you save (see www.pays.org; standards and incentives for efficient buildings, appliances, vehicles; government efficiency requirements, allowing agencies to retain at least a part of the savings; military procurement efficiency requirements.
Laws to promote use of renewable energy: feed-in tariffs as pioneered in Germany; renewable energy portfolio standards; incentives.
Subsidy reform -- remove subsidies for fossil fuels and devote the funds to renewable energy R&D and incentives.
Tax reform: Revenue-neutral carbon taxes; auto taxes and license fees calculated on auto efficiency; taxes on sales of appliances calculated on efficiency; appliance and vehicle efficiency labelling.
Agricultural reforms: Incentives for use of organic fertilizers and pesticides; requirements or incentives for use of drip irrigation; promotion of organic foods and farmers' markets; promotion of locally grown foods over imports; standards for GHG emissions from biofuels.
Preservation of forests and reforestation."
I would love to join this group – great idea.
For me (working on international water law and security) the two main challenges are:
1) Legal tension between the preservation of the status quo and the needed innovation to meet new demands and adapt to persistent change. Law has to provide for “security of expectations”, which seems like a static concept but faces the challenge to fulfill this function meeting constantly changing societal and political needs; and also dealing with global environmental change. How can law help providing flexibility and security of expectations at the same time?
2) Factual tension between the ecological unity of the (water) resource and the diverging sovereign interests of states. This in turn leads to friction between the aims of maximizing the overall benefit of resource management and maximizing the “relative benefits” of states – the overvaluation of short-term political costs compared to long-term socio-economic and environmental benefits. What is the role and relevance of law in overcoming this political reluctance?
I am really looking forward to participating in this group.
Best wishes, Bjørn-Oliver
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Great Bjorn, thanks for your comments. I will send an e-mail to you to include you in the Group.
Bruno.
I would like to leave a quote by Arnold W. Reitze, Jr. for now, and return for more comments later.
Writing in 1989, Reitze, Jr. said, "Environmental law has become a technician's field. But this approach, while having value, will eventually lead to collapse. Our habitat can not be sustained by incrementally reducing pollution at extraordinary cost. Environmental law needs to become a revolutionary field what honestly confronts the physical and biological limits of our world and seeks to live within these limits."
I cannot agree more with the above statement. I believe that all environmental lawyers should believe in law with a soul. In this regard, I would pick following two books as must-reads for environmental lawyers: Wild Law by Cormac Cullinan and The Principle of Sustainability by Klaus Bosselmann.
Una de las misiones fundamentales de los jóvenes abogados dedicados a la materia ambiental es fomentar la creación de herramientas institucionales para canalizar las cuestiones ambientales de la manera más adecuada a un Estado de Derecho, sobre todo en lo referido a la protección del ambiente, gestión de los recursos y participación de la ciudadanía en la toma de decisiones, entre muchos otros tópicos.
En el caso de mi país –Argentina-, observo frecuentemente cómo la excelente labor de expertos, organizaciones no gubernamentales, así como la de ciudadanos preocupados y dedicados a la cuestión ambiental, se ve frustrada en lo que respecta a su canalización institucional y consecuente obtención de resultados efectivos. Por suerte, es la Justicia argentina quien está tomando las riendas en este sentido, pero todavía queda mucho por hacer.
Obviamente hay temas en los que basta la actuación de cada individuo; pero para los conflictos de mayor trascendencia – nacional, regional o global-, y sobre todo aquellos que requieren acuerdo, es necesaria la instancia institucional.
A mi entender esta es una agenda a llevar adelante en muchos países, sobre todo los llamados en vías de desarrollo.
Somos los abogados quienes contamos con los mejores elementos, en el sentido de que manejamos el discurso jurídico normativo, y contamos con la facultad de acercar los demás discursos de la ciencia a un lenguaje común y entendible para todos.
Hay muchas cosas por hacer, temas específicos sin duda, pero una de las agendas más importantes es seguir instalando la cuestión ambiental, difundir información, acercar los lenguajes de las diferentes ciencias, generar opinión y participación de la ciudadanía, y sobre todo, dar cabida institucional a todo esto.
Los jóvenes abogados debemos movernos, circular, hacer, proponer, generar y seguir generando. Ojalá este sea un espacio que nos permita este movimiento.
Desde ya un placer estar con ustedes.
Cecilia Romero Kucharuk
I am impressed by the the CEL YP's!
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