Seminar on the Prospects of the UN Loss and Damage Fund: Between Utopia and Reality

Join Macquarie University's Business & Human Rights Access to Justice Lab and Centre for Environmental Law for a seminar on the Prospects of the UN Loss and Damage Fund: Between Utopia and Reality. The seminar will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Jernej Letnar Černič, Professor of Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Government and European Studies, Nova Univerza, Slovenia.

The UN Loss and Damage Fund serves as a mechanism of a financial nature that would compensate those countries that were adversely impacted by climate change. It aims to provide them with financial support for all losses and damages sustained due to climate change that cannot be remedied through mitigation and adaptation measures. The Fund also aims to create non-financial incentives and capacity to rebuild countries and help vulnerable communities. The Global South countries also consider the Fund as the mechanism by which Global North countries would compensate them for historical injustices.

The seminar will address the following questions: 

• Who are the rights-holders and duty-holders of the UN Loss and Damage Fund? 
• What are its normative underpinnings, and what are its legal scope and nature? 
• Is its aim also preventive or mostly to compensate most affected states for losses and damages? 
• For the Fund to have credibility and legitimacy, would it have to ensure equality in assisting all countries affected by the negative impacts of climate change? 
• What should be the overarching governing principles of the Fund?

This is a hybrid event - join us in-person or online via Zoom (URL sent upon registration). Please contact us if you have any trouble.