(January 26, 2010, Weil Gotshal News)
Weil Gotshal participated, on a
pro bono basis, in the Legal Resource Initiative - an Oxfam/WWF (the international conservation organization) initiative which provided real-time legal advice to NGO (non-governmental organization) delegations during the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) negotiations in Barcelona and Copenhagen in November and December of 2009. The initiative involved over 150 experts from law firms, chambers and institutions around the world liaising to support the thousands of NGO delegates attending the Copenhagen summit. Weil Gotshal lawyers from our London and Washington offices advised on a wide variety of matters, including the compatibility of proposals with US domestic law and international trade rules; the governance of institutions for providing climate change related finance; and the legally binding effect of proposed treaty language.
The members of the Weil Gotshal team included partners Annemargaret Connolly, Chip Roh and Andrew McLean; associates Nick Flynn, Thomas Goslin, Matt Morton, Erin Yates and Alex Levine; and trainees James Nierinck and Emma Rubin.
About the UNFCCC
With 194 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which requires 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries (but excluding the U.S.) and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, to achieve legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The Copenhagen summit was a key event in the ongoing efforts to agree on further measures to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. (
http://unfccc.int/2860.php)