The Global Pact for the Environment and the Sustainable Development Agenda
Date: September 25, 2019, 5:15pm – 7:30pm; Reception 7:30pm
Location: Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 101
The program for the event is available here.
See panelist bios here.
A detailed write-up of this event is available here: World Leaders Debate the Future of the Global Pact for the Environment
On the evening of September 25, 2019, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and Le Club des Juristes, with support from Iberdrola and under the guidance of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the SDGs, and Laurent Fabius, President of the Constitutional Council of the French Republic, hosted a conference to discuss the Global Pact for the Environment.
This conference, the third annual of its kind, built upon the last two years of diplomatic efforts to promote the Global Pact and discuss opportunities to strengthen international environmental governance. This conference focused on the ability of a Global Pact for the Environment, which aims to unify international environmental governance and codify a human right to the environment in international law, to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including by linking the 2030 Agenda to the international environmental legal system.
Specifically, the conference explored potential connections between 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Pact for the Environment, touching upon opportunities for mutual reinforcement and considering priority provisions for Global Pact negotiators to include to maximize impact. Panelists discussed how a Global Pact could serve the three overarching pillars of the Sustainable Development Agenda, including to promote social inclusion and economic development in addition to environmental protection.
Speakers included:
Yann Aguila, Partner, Bredin Prat; Professor of Public Law, Sciences Po and Paris Bar School; Chair of the Environmental Law Commission, Club des Juristes
Joan Carling, Co-Convener, Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development
Francisco Duarte Lopes, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations
Geneviève Dufour, Professor of Law, University of Sherbrooke
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73rd Session, UN General Assembly
Amal Mudallali, Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations
Carroll Muffett, President and CEO, Center for International Environmental Law
Stewart Patrick, Director, International Institutions and Global Governance Program, Council on Foreign Relations
Raoul Renard, Government Affairs Manager, International Chamber of Commerce
Nicholas Robinson, Executive Governor, International Council of Environmental Law
Carlos Sallé, Director, Energy Policies and Climate Change, Iberdrola
Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development
Satya Tripathi, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office at UN Environment