UNFCC negotiation on adaptation and its impact on the Artic regime
Professor Mar Campins Eritja
Mar Campins Eritja obtained a Ph.D. in Law from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1991. Since 1994, she is professor in Public International Law (European Community Law) at the Department of International Law and Economics of the Universitat de Barcelona School of Law.
Her main fields of teaching and research are: International Environmental Law and European Union Environmental Law, as well as institutional European Community Law.
She has been visiting professor and visiting researcher at the Ottawa University (2013), Dalhousie University (2011), Université de Montréal (2009-2010), Nova Southeastern University, Florida (2001) and University of Puerto Rico (1998 and 2015).
She has participated in several research projects concerning International and European Environmental Law issues, and she is the author of some books and several articles in these fields.
She is member of a High Quality Consolidated Research Working Group at the Universitat de Barcelona; member of the Water Research Institute at the Universitat de Barcelona; and member of the Centre d'Estudis de Dret Ambiental de Tarragona (CEDAT) at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. She’s also an external collaborator of the Centre de Recherche en Droit Public (CRDP) of the Université de Montréal. She is member of the pool of experts for the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the European Universities Association (EUA).
For several years she served as a Vice-dean of the Faculty of Law (2002-2005), and as Deputy Vice-rector and Vice-rector for International Policy (2005-2008) at the Universitat de Barcelona. She is member of the University Assembly (Claustro) of the Universitat de Barcelona (1994 – 2005, and 2010 – present).
Abstract
The Arctic region is both an essential component of the global climate system and a particularly vulnerable one. Over the last fifty years the increase in temperature has caused a significant warming effect throughout the Northern Hemisphere. As a result, in the Arctic region the thawing of permafrost has accelerated and the ice mass has decreased, in terms of both extent and thickness.
In this context, two conflicting trends can be identified. The first is a major “jurisdictionalization” of the Arctic region, focusing especially on the challenges of mapping maritime jurisdictional issues. The second trend is the increased need for international cooperation to ensure the international environmental governance of the Arctic region, exacerbated by tensions caused by the melting of the ice caps.
Adaptation to climate change in the Arctic is high up on the agendas of all the Arctic States. But to what extent are the Arctic issues been considered under the framework of the UNFCCC negotiations? How the Arctic countries, which are not Parties at the Kyoto Protocol are dealing with Arctic issues within such process? What is the role of the European Union, the non-Arctic countries and the non-State actors? The seminar will try to draw the attention to the international environmental governance of the Arctic and the current limitations of the international climate change regulatory framework. It will also address how and to what extent the specific interests of the Arctic States and of the European Union are being considered within the current climate change negotiations.
