Confronting climate change will require a significant reform of domestic and international economies and politics. Given the range of different national interests, policies, governance and diplomacy at play, can international legal agreements like the Paris Climate Agreement really make a difference? Five years later, what has been accomplished and what's next?

Join University of Toronto Faculty of Law Dean Jutta Brunnée, University Professor and James Marshall Tory Dean's Chair and Bryce Rudyk (U of T Law: JD 2005), Legal Advisor, Alliance of Small Island States, and Adjunct Professor of Law and Co-Director, United Nations Diplomacy Clinic, New York University, for an expert discussion and Q&A. 

Jutta Brunnée 

Jutta Brunnée is the Dean of the Faculty of Law, a University Professor and the James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair at the University of Toronto. Dean Brunnée’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of Public International Law, International Environmental Law and International Legal Theory. She has published extensively in each of these areas. Her current research agenda explores the role of international legality and legal practices in mediating between stability and change in international law.

Bryce Rudyk 

Bryce Rudyk is the Legal Advisor to the Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States at the United Nations since 2013 and participated in the negotiation of the Paris Climate Agreement focusing on institutional and compliance issues, and the incorporation of non-state actors into the international agreement. He is the Director of the United Nations Diplomacy Clinic and Adjunct Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law, and Senior Fellow at the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law. He teaches International Environmental Law, Global Environmental Governance and UN Diplomacy and has authored a number of articles and a book, focusing on the governance of global environmental problems and the incentives and legal and institutional regimes created to manage these problems.