COP29 in Azerbaijan provided some progress on global climate action, particularly climate adaption finance. Many critics from developing and small island nations argue, however, that it was not enough. Negotiations were contentious at this UN climate conference, and seemingly obscure to those of us following from abroad. University experts Jacqueline Peel, Janine Felson and Kate Coleman, who were on the ground for the negotiations in Baku, will provide their insights on what moved global climate policy forward, what held it back, and where that leaves our climate goals moving forward.
Professor Jackie Peel, Director
Jackie is the Director of Melbourne Climate Futures and a Professor at Melbourne Law School. She is a leading, internationally-recognised expert in the field of environmental and climate change law and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia. She has published widely in climate and environmental law, including leading monographs on Climate Litigation and Principles of International Environmental Law.
Among many professional roles, Jackie has served as the Treasurer of the Australian & New Zealand Society of International Law, as a Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law’s Signature Initiative on Climate Change and as a Lead Author in Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report. She is on the editorial board of Transnational Environmental Law and is a co-founder of the Women’s Energy and Climate Law Network.
Jackie was a Fulbright and Hauser Scholar at NYU and has held visiting scholar positions at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. In 2022, she is directing the Centre for Studies and Research Program on Climate Change and International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law.
Janine Felson, Enterprise Fellow
Janine Felson is a senior level diplomat of the Government of Belize. She has served as legal counsel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Belize-United Nations. She has been and continues to be a principal advocate for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in complex international negotiations on global development policy, climate change, climate finance, law of the sea and oceans governance.
She held leadership roles throughout her tenure at the United Nations including legal advisor to the President of the General Assembly (2013-2014), CARICOM lead negotiator for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015), AOSIS lead finance negotiator (2014 – present), and deputy chair and chief strategist for Belize in its role as AOSIS Chair (2019-2020). She has served on the Board of the Green Climate Fund, on the United Nations Secretary General’s High-level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitment of Non-State Entities (2022) and recently concluded facilitation of Part II of the new treaty on marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (2023).
Janine is presently an Enterprise Fellow of Melbourne Climate Futures, University of Melbourne Law School, where she is supporting the development of a research hub for the Indo-Pacific Region, as its Inaugural Head, with a focus on thought leadership and capacity building in adaptation and resilience.
A/Prof Kate Coleman
A/Prof Kate Coleman is co-lead of SWISP with Dr Sarah Healy and CI on ‘The Learning with the Land’, SSHRC project in the Faculty of Education. Her pluridisciplinary research and teaching are positioned in the intersection of art, design, digital, practice, culture, and data. Kate’s research into practice includes digital practices and immersive data sites, creativities, speculative inquiry, and data creation with young people living in the midst of climate collapse.
