Panel discussion: 'Operationalising climate policy for global net zero emissions'

Past Event

Date
 23 October 2024, 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Location
 Oxford Martin School & Online
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Hands holding jigsaw pieces with environmental images
© Adobe Stock

89% of the world’s population live in a country with a national net zero target but these targets need to be implemented effectively in policy and regulation if the goals of the Paris Agreement are to be achieved. Too often, this is still not happening.

One important gap in climate policy is that it often focuses on domestic emission reductions but does not prevent states from contributing substantially to emissions outside of their borders, for instance by remaining a major fossil fuel exporter. This event will interrogate the consequences of climate policies that fail to look beyond national borders, and discuss best practice from around the world for curbing emissions at home as well as abroad.

Professor Wetzer will introduce the work of the recently established Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation and Policy, and explain what the Programme aims to achieve.

Panel:

  • Professor Thom Wetzer, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation & Policy (Chair)
  • Kate Cook, Barrister, Matrix Chambers
  • Dr Injy Johnstone, Research Fellow in Net Zero Aligned Offsetting, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment
  • Professor David Karoly, Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation & Policy

Cook Kate

Kate Cook
Barrister, Matrix Chambers

Kate has specialist and wide-ranging expertise in environmental law. She also practises generally in public international, European Union and human rights law. She has appeared as counsel before the International Court of Justice and other international fora in cases relating to environmental issues and genocide. Her recent work includes advising states, NGOs and international organisations on climate emergency issues and advising UN agencies and NGOs on a range of biodiversity, land rights, due diligence and fisheries related issues. She is increasingly involved in climate litigation before the UK courts and is currently acting for Friends of the Earth UK in a judicial review concerning the UK’s financing of a gas field project in Mozambique. She has authored two legal guides published by UNFAO, a textbook on wildlife law (Cameron May 2004) and regularly publishes and lectures on international and environmental issues including climate change, due diligence and related human rights.

Before joining Matrix in 2000, Kate worked for six years as a lawyer in the former Department of the Environment (International & EC Division), where she gained extensive experience of European litigation and negotiations and international treaty negotiations as well as domestic regulation.

Injy Johnstone headshot

Dr Injy Johnstone
Research Fellow in Net Zero Aligned Offsetting, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment

Injy works to establish a new research programme focused on offsetting and finance within Oxford Sustainable Finance Group. She is a final stage PhD Candidate in International Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington and an Enrolled Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. Her research focuses on conceiving Net-Zero as a source of new legal norms and delving into their substance, including how they can promote the environmental integrity of carbon markets. Injy gained an LLM in Environmental and Energy Law as a Fulbright scholar from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She also holds an LLB(Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington and a BSc in Physical Geography and Economics from the University of Otago.

Injy has worked with and advised a range of public, private and third-sector entities, including Oxford Net-Zero, the Global Center on Adaptation, UNESCO and the UN MGCY. While at New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment, she was the Project Administrator for New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act. In 2022, she ran a project entitled ‘Net-Zero New Zealand’ to conceive Net-Zero norm development on a community level.

Karoly David

Professor David Karoly
Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation & Policy

David Karoly is a Professor Emeritus (honorary) in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne and an honorary Senior Research Fellow in Melbourne Climate Futures, having retired from CSIRO at the end of January 2022. He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability. He is also a part-time Councillor on the Climate Council, Australia.

Professor Karoly was Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO, during 2018 to June 2021. During 2012-2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles. He was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences and elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019.

From 2007 to February 2018, David Karoly was Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne and in the A.R.C. Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. From 2003 to 2007, he held the Williams Chair in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.

Wetzer_Thom_Prof

Professor Thom Wetzer
Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation & Policy

Thom Wetzer is Associate Professor of Law and Finance at the University of Oxford and the Founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme. At Oxford, Thom is also a Fellow of Linacre College, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, a member of the leadership team at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and a member of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance.

Thom’s research examines how law and finance can generate value and advance the public good, focusing on how we can build more resilient financial systems, improve the governance of corporations, and tackle the climate crisis. His work combines traditional legal scholarship with financial, scientific, and empirical analysis, and has been published or is forthcoming in Nature, Science, The Journal of Corporation Law, and the Journal of Corporate Law Studies. His research has featured in media around the world, including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Guardian. Thom actively collaborates with and advises governments, central banks, corporations, NGOs, and international institutions – including the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. He is also a Director at the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative.