Climate change: Dundee conference explores using the law

The event will explore legal aspects of action on climate change

An international conference is to look at how the law can be used in the fight against climate change.

The Dundee University event will focus on identifying "elements of a global climate consensus" and the legal practicalities of climate action.

Speakers include chief Australian environment court judge Brian Preston and Oxford University's Dr Friederike Otto.

Delegates are also expected from Germany, the US, Singapore and Ireland.

Prof Otto, acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, said the conference was a "crucial step" to determine how the science of attribution - research to ascertain the mechanisms of global warming - can be used in litigation.

'Crucial concepts'

Prof Otto said: "It is by enhancing conversations between lawyers, judges and scientists that we can open a new avenue to speed up the world into achieving the temperature target of the Paris Agreement."

Conference organiser Dr Petra Minnerop said: "We hope that by bringing together experts from geoscience, climate science and law, we can clarify crucial concepts that have thus far stalled affirmative climate action.

"The scientific consensus must be tracked in law, to ensure our international and domestic laws are better equipped to tackle climate change."

The conference takes place at the University of Dundee on 27 and 28 September.