On 3 July 2026, APCEL hosted a panel discussion on the recent Santa Marta conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. The ‘Santa Marta Conference Debrief’ was hosted at White & Case LLP’s office in collaboration with the NUS Centre for Nature-Based and Climate Solutions and White & Case LLP. Moderated by APCEL Academic Fellow Justin Lim, the panel featured Joseph Teo (Chief Climate Negotiator, Singapore), Associate Professor Jolene Lin (Director, APCEL), Melissa Low (Research Fellow, Centre for Nature-Based Climate Solutions), and Fergus Smith (Partner, White & Case LLP).

Dr Linda Yanti Sulistiawati, Senior Research Fellow at APCEL, moderated an interactive “Ask Us Anything” panel, “Nature, Money, and the MSME Reality,” at the UN Global Compact Network Singapore MSME Day x SGX Group: Supply Chain in Focus conference on 18 June 2026. Joined by experts from Razer, IFC, and Olam Agri, the panel explored how nature-related risks are reshaping business operations, financing decisions, and supply chain resilience for MSMEs.

APCEL Research Associate, Yang Huiwen’s article on “From Empire to Equity: Why the International Maritime Organisation Struggles to Internalise Climate Differentiation?” published by the Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is now available. In her article, Huiwen critically examines why the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has persistently resisted operationalising the climate-law principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC) in regulating greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping.

In Southeast Asia, where economies, governance systems, and social conditions are highly diverse, translating just transition principles into policy requires contextual sensitivity. This article examines how just transition is being understood and pursued across the region using the JUST framework, which integrates multiple dimensions of justice, alongside spatial and temporal considerations. Drawing on regional policy developments, legal frameworks, and selected country examples, the article highlights persistent gaps in procedural inclusion, uneven distribution of transition costs and benefits, and limited recognition of indigenous and vulnerable communities.

APCEL Director, Jolene Lin was featured in Lianhe Zaobao’s article on Middle East Conflict Fuels Energy Security Concerns; Over 50 Countries Expected at World’s First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, where she commented on the significance of the Santa Marta Conference which was held in May 2026. The conference marks a practical step beyond UN climate deadlock, testing countries’ readiness to move from fossil-fuel pledges to action while linking the transition to climate goals, public health, and energy security.

APCEL Academic Fellow Justin Lim’s article, ‘Singapore on Thames’ Metropolitan Dreams and Planning Regimes is published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. In his article, Justin critically compares the UK and Singapore planning regimes within their constitutional contexts and sheds light on how divergent approaches to planning may secure different outcomes.

APCEL Director Associate Professor Jolene Lin examines the potential for transnational litigation to advance corporate climate accountability. It also seeks to identify pathways for future research that can underpin a rewarding and meaningful research agenda on climate justice in the Global South.

In the maritime regime fairness is expressed through uniform rule application. When IMO turns to regulate climate-related issue, these divergent fairness grammars collide: one pushes toward differentiation and structural change, while the other secures stability through uniformity.  In her article, APCEL Research Associate Yang Huiwen, proposes a perspective for understanding and bridging the normative tensions that arise when legal regimes interact, using the law-making process in international shipping decarbonisation as its focal point.

On 8 April 2026, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) and EW Barker Centre for Law & Business (EWBCLB) at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law, and the Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) co-hosted a workshop on Corporate Sustainability. Both Virginia Harper Ho, Professor of Law at City University of Hong Kong and Visiting Scholar Professor at EWBCLB, and Jolene Lin, Associate Professor, and director of APCEL at NUS Law are co-chairs of the ALSA’s Environmental and Sustainability Chapter. They led the discussion on two papers that addressed major issues in sustainable business law. The workshop was attended by young and established scholars from the three entities, fostering a lively interdisciplinary conversation.

On 18-19 March 2026, APCEL Post-Doctorate Fellow Justine Muller and Academic Fellow Justin Lim participated in the ‘Securing Justice for the Planet: Opportunities for, and barriers to, course correction’ conference hosted by Macquarie University. The conference was organised by the Environmental law Research Centre at Macquarie University.

APCEL Senior Research Fellow, Sean D. Tseng, and NUS Emeritus Professor Lye Lin-Heng’s Singapore chapter in the International Encyclopedia of Laws (IEL): Environmental Law is now available online. The monograph is a comprehensive country report on Singapore’s environmental legal system and it provides a systematic overview of how environmental law works in Singapore.

On 5-6 February, APCEL hosted a team of practitioners, campaigners, and scholars to discuss the way the past strategies of the movement for the Advisory Opinion should inform our future strategies for climate law and policy. The workshop featured discussions about the ways movement lawyering played a significant role in shaping the legal thought and practice during the Advisory Proceedings.