Climate Change Litigation InitiativeOur Team

Amelia Burnette, Legal Analyst

Amelia is a legal analyst with the Climate Change Litigation Initiative and a doctoral student with the University of Strathclyde School of Law where she is pursuing research at the intersection of environmental law and human rights as a Fulbright Award recipient.   Amelia practiced law in the United States for over a decade, with a focus on protecting a healthy environment and communities that depend on natural resources.  She advocated for protection of water resources, forests, and imperiled species, and for proper accounting of climate impacts and planning for resiliency in agency decision-making. Through complex litigation before federal and state tribunals, she has developed expertise in the role of strategic litigation in environmental advocacy.  Amelia has presented regularly on legal advocacy related to protecting forests, biodiversity, and freshwater resources.  Amelia’s work with C2LI relates to her research examining the human right dimensions of impacts from climate change and rights-based approaches to redressing environmental harms.

Esmeralda Colombo, Legal Analyst

Esmeralda is legal analyst at the Climate Change Litigation Initiative, after contributing to the book “Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects” as the rapporteur for Norway. She is an expert in international and comparative law and has academic and practical experience in climate change, energy, sustainable finance and entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and access to justice matters. She is admitted to the bar in Italy and New York State. Esmeralda is fluent in Italian (mother tongue), English, Spanish, French, and Norwegian. Besides Europe, she has worked in North America, Southern Africa, and Asia (India and Cambodia) for intergovernmental, private, and academic organizations. In addition to C2LI, Esmeralda is Research Fellow at the Centre on Climate and Energy Transformation (University of Bergen, Norway) and Legal Fellow at the Centre on International Sustainable Development Law (Montreal, Canada).

Francesco Sindico, Founder and Director

Francesco is the Founder and Co-Director of the Climate Change Litigation Initiative. Together with Makane Moïse Mbengue he was the editor of the book “Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects” that has led to C2LI. He is an expert in international law and has academic and practical experience not only in climate change, but also in international water law and sustainable development law. He provides legal advice to international organisations and governments in matters of international law and enjoys translating his academic work in policy oriented and practical outputs. C2LI feeds on this interest and need to make academic work useful and relevant. Francesco is fluent in Italian (mother tongue), English, Spanish and French. He has worked in Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean and Southern Africa. In addition to C2LI, Francesco is the Founder and Co-Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) and the Programme Director of the Strathclyde LLM Global Environmental Law and Governance.

Gastón Medici-Colombo, Legal Analyst

Gastón began his role with C2LI in 2019 during a research stay at the University of Strathclyde as part of SCELG’s Visiting Researchers Programme. He is an Argentinian lawyer specialized in environmental law and has academic and practical experience in climate change, access to justice, and environmental democracy issues. As a way of channelling his academic work directly to society, Gastón has provided legal advice to public interest non-governmental organizations in Latin America and Spain and has developed climate education activities. He is fluent in Spanish (mother tongue) and English and has elementary proficiency in Portuguese, German and Catalan. He has worked in Latin America and Europe, both as an academic and a legal advisor. In addition to C2LI, Gastón is finalizing his PhD in Law on climate change litigation while working as a research fellow at the Tarragona Centre for Environmental Law Studies (CEDAT) in Spain. 

Jolene Lin, Director

Jolene Lin is Co-Director of the Climate Change Litigation Initiative and an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law (NUS). She is also Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law. Jolene’s research focuses on four broad issues: Climate Litigation as a Strategic Tool to Advance Climate Policy Goals; Global Climate Change Law and Policy; Environmental Law in Asia; and Transnational Environmental Legal Ordering. Jolene has published extensively on these topics in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Environmental Law, the European Journal of International Law and the American Journal of International Law. She regularly conducts seminars and provides consultancy services to government agencies, judicial bodies, companies and non-governmental organizations. At NUS, Jolene teaches tort law and climate change law. She received the faculty’s teaching award in 2020 in recognition of her passionate commitment to teaching.

Juan Auz, Legal Analyst

Juan Auz is an Ecuadorian lawyer, a legal analyst with the Climate Change Litigation Initiative (C2LI) and a PhD candidate at the Hertie School's Centre for Fundamental Rights in Berlin. Before this, he was an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). His research lies at the junction of human rights and climate change law with a focus on Latin America. Juan has previously worked for several years in Ecuador on indigenous peoples' rights in Amazonia as the co-founder of Terra Mater and Executive Director of Fundación Pachamama. He holds an LL.B. from Universidad de las Americas in Quito and an LL.M. in Global Environmental Law from the University of Edinburgh. Juan is a member of CIVICUS, the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law, the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment and the European Society of International Law (ESIL). 

Kate McKenzie, Deputy Director

Kate began her role with C2LI alongside its Founders and Co-Directors at its inception and has contributed to the development of the Initiative from its beginning. As a licensed attorney in the USA, she has extensive experience in Alternative Dispute Resolution and over 15 years of practical experience working on social justice issues. Kate is a PhD researcher at the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) and a member of the One Ocean Hub (OOH). In her role with the OOH Inception Team, she has worked in South Africa, Ghana and Fiji. Her research focuses on climate change litigation with a particular emphasis on ocean-related climate impacts. Kate is fluent in German and English (mother tongues), and continues to expand her capacity in Spanish, Italian and French. In addition to her work with C2LI and OOH, Kate works on a variety of Human Rights projects specific to the Scottish context. She holds an LLM in Global Environmental Law and Governance, a Juris Doctor with a concentration in Environmental Law and a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice Performance.

Lennart Wegener, Legal Analyst

Lennart has joined the Climate Change Litigation Initiative in March 2019 and has since collaborated in the design and implementation of the Initiative. As Legal Analyst he is currently responsible for the preparation of several country reports and coordination with National Rapporteurs. Beyond his collaboration with C2LI, Lennart is a legal trainee at the Landgericht Wiesbaden, and finalizes his PhD project on interactions between the Paris Agreement and other instruments such as domestic litigation concerning mitigation targets. He has been an NGO observer at international climate change conferences in 2013-15, and has published on the topic of climate change litigation. Lennart is also Associate Editor of Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR), and speaks fluently German (mother tongue), English and Spanish.

Lydia Omuko-Jung, Legal Analyst

Lydia is a Legal Analyst and the National Rapporteur for Kenya at the Climate Change Litigation Initiative (C2LI). She contributed the chapter on Climate Litigation in Kenya in the book “Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects” that led to C2LI. She is an Attorney admitted to the Kenyan bar with both research and practical experience in litigation and in climate change law and policy. As a litigation counsel, she has represented government and non-governmental entities in national and regional courts within East Africa on constitutional law, judicial review, and environmental law cases. She also has expertise in climate policy formulation and has been advising subnational governments in Kenya on mainstreaming climate change considerations into sectoral legislations and policies and formulating climate related policies for them. She has worked in Africa and Europe and speaks English, Swahili, German and other local languages in Kenya (Luo and Luhyia). In addition to C2LI, Lydia is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Law and Political Science at University of Graz where she is part of ClimLaw: Graz – a research centre for Climate Law. She is also a doctoral candidate within the Doctoral Programme Climate Change at the same University.

Makane Moïse Mbengue, Director

Pau de Vilchez Moragues, Legal Analyst

Pau de Vílchez Moragues is a Legal Advisor to the Climate Change Litigation Initiative (C2LI). He holds a PhD in International Environmental Law (University if the Balearic Islands), a Masters degree in International Relations (Sciences-Po Paris) and a bachelor’s degree in Law (University of Salamanca). He has working experience at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague and at the UNHCR in Cairo as well as in several development projects in Ivory Coast and Niger and at the Development Agency of the Balearic Islands. He is currently an assistant research Lecturer in International Law at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and focuses his research on the intersection of climate change, environmental law and human rights, devoting special attention to climate litigation. He is the Deputy Director of the Interdisciplinary Lab on Climate Change (LINCC) of the University of the Balearic Islands, has been the Project officer for the Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative in Spain and is the Focal point of the UIB at the UNFCCC.