An online book launch on Tuesday 26 May 2020 is set to introduce the Guide to the Paris Agreement, an invaluable companion to all negotiators, policy analysts and advocates who are following the global climate talks.

Kishan Kumarsingh, the former Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the UNFCCC that developed the Paris Agreement. He will put the agreement in historic perspective.

The Guide’s Editor, Anju Sharma of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi), will give an overview of what’s in the guide.

Christoph Schwarte of Legal Response International and Selam Kidane Abebe of Reading University will contribute to the discussion; they are both lawyers with many years of practical experience in the climate negotiations.

Selam, who advises the African Group of Negotiators, will talk about what it’s like to take part in the negotiations and how the voices of delegates from developing country parties can be strengthened.

The speakers will also outline the services provided by ecbi partner organisations and reflect on the big negotiating challenges that lie ahead for the parties to the Paris Agreement.

Kiran Sura, Programme Director of the Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA), which has supported this latest edition of the guide, will chair the event. As quizmaster, she will run an online quiz to give listeners a chance to win a free hard copy.

Joining link here

The one-hour event is free and open to attend: mark your calendar for 14:00 UTC (15:00 British Summer Time; 16:00 East Africa Time; 10:00 Eastern Standard Time) to join using the audience link here.

About the guide

In 160 pages, the Guide to the Paris Agreement describes the scope, structure and content of the Paris Agreement in easily accessible language. It is an extended and updated version of the 2016 ecbi Pocket Guide to the Paris Agreement. It takes into account subsequent decisions adopted by the Conferences of the Parties in Katowice and Madrid (2018-19). It contains the provisions of the Agreement, explanations of these provisions, short summaries of potential implications for domestic law and policy in the developing countries as well as a comprehensive index. The Guide also provides an introduction to the negotiations that led up to the adoption of the Agreement.

This Guide is meant as a companion for those participating in or following the negotiations under the Paris Agreement. It is also intended to strengthen national law- and policy-makers’ understanding of the Paris Agreement, offering some general points when considering the Agreement’s domestic implementation.

Panelists’ biographies

In speaking order:

Kiran Sura is an Assistant Director at PwC and Programme Lead of the Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA), supporting climate negotiators from developing and climate vulnerable countries. Kiran specialises in international climate policy and finance, and works with a range of public and private sector clients on climate action.

Anju Sharma is the Deputy Managing Director of Oxford Climate Policy and Editor of the Guide. She has followed the climate negotiations since 1997, and worked for the UN Environment Programme (in Kenya), Oxfam (in Oxford), and Centre for Science and Environment (in New Delhi) before joining OCP. She initiated the Pocket Guide series as head of the Publications and Policy Analysis unit at the European Capacity Building Initiative.

Christoph Schwarte is the Executive Director of Legal Response International (LRI) – a London based charity that provides free legal support to developing countries and civil society observer organisations in connection with the international climate negotiations. Christoph has almost 20 years of practical experience in different arenas of international environmental law and was a member of the International Law Association’s Committee that developed legal principles related to climate change (adopted in 2014).

Selam Kidane Abebe is the Legal Adviser to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) under the United Nations on Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She is also a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar in Climate Justice at the University of Reading. Before that, she led the policy and legal department of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forest of Ethiopia.

Kishan Kumarsingh is the Head of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit in the Ministry of Planning and Development of Trinidad and Tobago. He is a lead technical negotiator for his country and chaired the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) from 2005 to 2007. He was a co-Chair of the UNFCCC Ad hoc Working Group that developed the Paris Agreement from 2013-2014.