Climate Change Lawyers Network

The event will take place from 11:30 to 2:30 on 26 October 2011 in Room 280N of the York Research Tower at York University.

For more information please visit:

http://ylife.news.yorku.ca/2011/10/25/post-election-sustainable-energy-debrief-tomorrow/

The Climate Change Lawyers Network (CCLN) is a network of lawyers and law students providing resources and a forum to discuss climate change and climate law. In light of the 16th edition of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) and the 6th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), the CCLN has issued the following request to the Federal Government of Canada:

 As trusted advisors, we commit to incorporating climate change considerations into our everyday work and lives. We take responsibility for helping our clients understand the risks and opportunities associated with climate change. We believe that every profession, community and nation must make a deliberate contribution to finding climate solutions.

 COP 16 is an opportunity for Canada to regain international credibility as a consensus builder. The first step is to get back to the negotiating table in a meaningful way.

  Our national circumstances require action on climate change.

• Many of Canada’s communities, particularly those in northern or remote areas, are extremely vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate, such as changing water levels and melting permafrost.
• Our timber stocks and prime agricultural land are under serious threat from avariety of climate change effects, including pest habitat expansions, changing water levels and more frequent and intense storms.
• International criticism and mistrust caused by our failure to abide by Canada’s Kyoto commitment are reducing our influence abroad.
• Canada is missing opportunities to become a leader in the inevitable shift to a low-carbon economy.
• The Canadian economy is dependent on trade with the rest of the world. The CCLN has concerns about trade consequences if Canada continues to block progress on reducing greenhouse gases internationally.

Canada has an opportunity to use its natural and human capital to find political and  technological solutions that work for Canadians and the world.

 We ask that the Canadian Federal Government:

• Provide certainty to businesses and the public by committing to honour existing emission reduction commitments;
• Fund and mandate a comprehensive national greenhouse gas inventory to allow for appropriate and efficient policy creation;
• Allocate meaningful funds to help northern and other vulnerable communities toplan for and adapt to climate change;
• Support provincial Greenhouse gas reduction measures and show leadership by integrating them into an effective national system;
• Accept international consensus and agree to 1990 as the baseline year; and
• Enable and facilitate Canadian participation in the Kyoto Protocol Flexibility Mechanisms.

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For information please contact:
Laura Zizzo
Co-Chair, Climate Change Lawyers Network
laura@zizzoclimate.com
416-817-5140

or

info@climatechangelawyers.ca

In Cancun (November 30-December 10, 2010)
Travis Allan
Outreach and Education Officer
travis@zizzoclimate.com
416-417-1195

Last year, CCLN provide the Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC”) with a significant submission on carbon disclosure rates among Canadian issuers, which had the support of the investor group Ceres, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and the Canadian Climate Action Network (Read more about the submission here).

At the end of October, the OSC released  CSA Staff Notice 51-333, which provides significant guidance to reporting issuers on the type of environmental, including climate, information they are required to disclose. The Staff Notice presents specific examples of how these disclosure requirements will apply in the context of a changing climate and the changing regulatory environment necessitated by climate change.  Examples of physical risks presented in the Staff Notice include the impact of changing weather patterns and fluctuating water availability. Regulatory risk examples include reporting requirements, carbon pricing systems, carbon limits and trading systems.  Furthermore, the Forward Looking Information requirements, which require disclosure “regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action” may well encourage corporates climate change adaption and mitigation plans.

Following an earlier staff notice from February 2008 that called for clarity in OSC reporting guidelines on environmental issues, the release of Staff Notice 51-333 was much anticipated; see any of the following for more discussion and analysis:

Zizzo Allan Climate: Canadians Securities Administrators Release Environmental Reporting Guidance: Says Public Companies Must Disclose Climate Risks

Davis LLP: Ontario Securities Commission Releases New Guidlines for Environmental Reporting

Corporate Knights: Canadian Security Regulators Signal Canadian Public Companies to Increase Environmental Disclosure

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure is currently soliciting feedback  on Ontario’s long term energy plan. To make it easy for many people to participate, they’ver prepared an online slideshow that allows for stakeholder comments and feedback. The presentation looks for feedback on how consumers expect demand to change in the coming years, and what role they want renewable energy, as well as traditional energy sources to play. It also looks for input on how the much the government should invest in upgrading transmission and distribution infrastructure and how the government can effectively encourage a culture of conservation .

You can access the site by clicking here.

350.org, an organization that does great work raising global awareness about the science and consequences of climate change, is encouraging people all over the globe to plan and attend ‘work parties’ on 10/10/10. The thinking is: if people all over the world can go to work to fight climate change on this day, so should the policy makers! To register your own event, or find out what activities are taking place near you check out http://www.350.org/actions.

photo credit: 350.org

Many CCLN members may be interested in an opportunity to contribute to an upcoming conference at Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law in the Spring of 2011. Papers are due September 1, 2010 and further information is provided below.

Many low-lying island states exist at or just a few meters above sea level, and in the coming decades as a result of sea level rise and other factors some of them may face population relocation, loss of water supply and vital infrastructure, disruption of marine resources and agriculture, and other impacts. The Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands has approached Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law to explore creative approaches to the legal issues facing these nations. Among the legal questions that need to be explored are the implications of the loss of inhabitable physical territory for statehood, for maritime governance, for property, fishing and mineral rights, and for the legal status of displaced persons.  International law, human rights law, environmental law, and admiralty law are just a few of the fields that may be implicated.

We will be hosting a conference to explore these issues at Columbia Law School in the spring of 2011.  We request legal scholars and practitioners who may wish to write papers for the conference to submit abstracts by September 1, 2010.  Further details are available here.