IELP goes to Copenhagen to fight climate change

Professors Chris Wold and Erica Thorson, along with Professor Melissa Powers, and five IELP students attended the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

IELP provided a range of legal advice to developing country attorneys and nongovernmental organizations during the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A key legal question emerged over whether decisions of the Parties could bind the United States either as a matter of international law or national law, which IELP worked to answer as part of a coalition of international environmental attorneys.

In addition, because of IELP’s long history of working in international environmental negotiations, it was asked to be a select group of international attorneys to advise attorneys representing governments in the G77-China.

IELP students participated actively in the negotiations by helping officials from Tuvalu think creatively about the use of legal strategies outside of the climate change regime to save their small island national from extinction due to rising seas.

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