Harvard: Alumni Spotlight, Preserving a Livable Planet
LL.M. alumni on multiple continents address the urgent challenges of climate change.
Harvard profiled four of their LL.M alumni working with IGSD who have played a critical role in the efforts to avert the worst effects of global warming and preserve a livable planet: Maxime Beaugrand LL.M. ’01, IGSD Director of the Paris Office, Xiaopu Sun LL.M. ’08, IGSD Senior China Counsel, and Selena Bateman LL.M. ’23 and Eoin Jackson LL.M. ’23, IGSD Law Fellows. Long-time IGSD collaborator Antonio (Tony) Oposa Jr. LL.M. ’97, was also recognized.
The IGSD team promotes fast-action climate mitigation, with expertise ranging from climate litigation to ongoing implementation of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to a proposal for a Global Methane Agreement inspired by the Montreal Protocol.
Lawyers are well-positioned to play a critical role both in the short-term sprint to mitigate climate risk as well as in the marathon to achieve decarbonization and attain net zero by 2050. As John Kerry, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said in an address to the American Bar Association, “You are all climate lawyers now.”
Rather than being limited to those with environmental or public law backgrounds, the challenge ahead requires lawyers with expertise and new ideas from across the spectrum of legal specialties and sectors. As demonstrated by the work of these LL.M. alums, combating climate change is a collaborative, multi-generational, and multi-dimensional undertaking.