How do we get out of the mine?
In the same way that years ago the death of the canary at the entrance to the coalmine warned the miners that they were in grave danger, melting sea ice and extreme weather events tell us that climate change has happened.
The question that faces us all is how we get out of the mine.
As COP26 draws to a close it is difficult not to feel that every route out is blocked and that as individuals, there is nothing we can do. The billions of investment needed to fund the green transition are simply beyond our comprehension. Can we really expect people to appreciate the distinction between a 0.3 degree rise in global temperature over current levels (fine) and a 1.5 degree rise (decidedly not fine)?
As an international arbitration community we are uniquely placed to address climate change. There is enormous scope for lawyers to assist clients in acheiving decarbonisation goals. Legal services must take into account climate legal risk, as well as existing and anticipated regulatory risk. Lawyers must assist clients in preparing for the regulatory change that is needed to achieve net zero in the limited time we have left. There must be training and collaboration across the industry to facilitate the transition to net zero. Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary, UN Convention on Climate Change, said: “Commercial lawyers are critical to the informed transition of energy, industry, infrastructure and land use systems to net zero. The Race to Zero benefits enormously from their guidance in commercial contracts as well as suggestions for forward leaning commercial law."
We must change our behaviours as well as our practices. Operationally, law firms and arbitration institutions must set interim targets for 2030 and net zero targets for 2050. The average carbon footprint per person in the UK is 12 tons. Just one return flight from London to Houston business class is 7 tons of carbon equivalent emissions. Globally, the average carbon footprint per person is closer to 4 tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop to under 2 tons by 2050. Individual practitioners should also be calculating their carbon footprints and establishing targets for decarbonising their practices.
The route out of the mine will not be found by personal sacrifice or operational change, we need corporations and governments to comply with their obligations under the Paris Agreement for that and we need to roll up our sleeves as international lawyers and assist where we can in facilitating that compliance, but it will be paved with the changes that we make to our personal lives and to our operational lives that align with our net zero goals.
