Description

About the Lecture

The Paris Agreement is a cornerstone of international climate governance. 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of its entry into force.

A central piece of its architecture is the Paris Agreement Compliance Committee (PAICC) which is tasked to facilitate implementation and promote compliance by all parties with the provisions set out in the agreement.

In this talk, Prof. Christina Voigt, professor of law at the University of Oslo, Norway, co-chair of PAICC, will look back on the Committee’s first 10 years, talk about challenges and achievements and share her views on the future of compliance with the Paris Agreement. She has been a member of PAICC since its establishment, and is the committee’s Co-Chair (2019-2024, and 2026-ctd.)

About the Speaker

Christina Voigt, Ph.D./Dr. jur. (Oslo, Norway), LL.M. Env. (Hons.1) (Auckland, New Zealand), Rechtswissenschaft/Law (Passau and Munich, Germany), is Full Professor of Law at the Department of Public and International Law, University of Oslo, Norway. She is a leading expert in international environmental law and the author of numerous academic publications, including Non-Compliance Mechanisms versus International Courts (w/C. Foster, CUP, 2024), International Judicial Practice on the Environment – Questions of Legitimacy (CUP, 2019), Handbook on REDD+ and International Law (EEP, 2016), and Rule of Law for Nature (CUP, 2013). Professor Voigt is the chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law and acted as IUCN´s lead legal counsel in the climate change advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. From 2009 to 2018, she served the Norwegian government as lead negotiator on REDD+ and as principal legal advisor in the UN climate change negotiations, negotiating, inter alia, the Paris Agreement and its Rulebook. Since 2019, she has been a member of the Paris Agreement Compliance Committee and served from 2020 until 2024 as the Committee´s inaugural Co-Chair.

Professor Voigt’s detailed CV can be accessed at https://www.jus.uio.no/ior/english/people/aca/chrisvo/