Climate Action before International Courts and Tribunals: Challenges and Prospects

Celebrating Professor Makane Mbengue’s residence as the Bredin Prat Distinguished Visiting Scholar 2024, Sciences Po Law School LLM Program in Transnational Arbitration & Dispute Settlement (TADS LLM) and Bredin Prat invite you to his keynote lecture: “Climate Action before International Courts and Tribunals: Challenges and Prospects”.

Synopsis by Prof. Makane Mbengue: Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet today. Despite climate urgency, and according to the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international community is failing in meeting climate goals. This is mostly due to the uncertainty that is characterizing climate obligations under international law. In this context, international courts and tribunals, including arbitral tribunals, are more and more seen as potential vehicles to remedy the legal gaps and uncertainties within the climate change regime. At the present time, there are for instance three pending requests for advisory opinions before courts such as the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of human Rights in relation to climate change. 

This lecture will explore how international courts and tribunals can contribute to the clarification and precision of obligations relating to climate change and the challenges they may face in such an endeavour. The lecture will also address how international courts and tribunals could address issues such as loss and damages and compensation in the context of this new generation of climate change litigation.