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Over the past two years, two Human Ecology professors have spent a lot of time inside meeting rooms in exotic destinations translating their unique expert knowledge into policy. Dr. Pamela McElwee is one of three co-chairs leading the IPBES assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health – coined the ‘Nexus Assessment’. Dr. Cymie Payne has contributed to the analysis that enabled the negotiations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity and has, pro bono, represented the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN in three cases before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
In June of 2023, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction was adopted protecting 40% of the earth that had previously been unprotected. This was a triumph for the international environmental law community and one Dr. Payne had passionately advocated and tirelessly supported for years by providing the rigorous application of legal expertise in her field of international environmental law. In collaboration with colleagues, Dr. Payne led the development of briefing notes and commentaries on versions of the negotiated draft texts that were designed to provide easy and rapid access to the information for all negotiators working under severe time pressure. The usefulness and importance of this work in reaching agreements was recognized and appreciated by negotiators publicly.
Dr. Payne also led an advisory opinion on the obligations of states under the Law of the Sea Convention to prevent, reduce, and control pollution from greenhouse gases and to protect and preserve the ocean from the effects of climate change and acidification. She argued on behalf of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, one of five intergovernmental organizations invited to provide written and oral statements. Payne states “We explained that the Convention requires States Parties to ensure reductions in GHG pollution, that the Paris Agreement provides a standard of care, and that best available science indicates that even a maximum of 1.5 °C warming will have serious deleterious effects on fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs.” This advisory opinion was the first of three requested of international courts; the others will be heard by the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. 34 nations, 9 intergovernmental organizations, and ten non-governmental entities participated. The hope and expectation is that these three distinguished international courts will acknowledge the dire circumstances of the climate crisis, and that they will remind governments of the legal duties they assumed under international agreements.
Dr. McElwee has been applying her interdisciplinary research skills and leadership to co-chair the IPBES assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health (‘Nexus Assessment’). Speaking about the significance of the assessments, McElwee and her co-chairs Prof. Harrison and Dr. Obura said, “Since the publication of the IPBES Global Assessment, in 2019, Governments and other decision-makers have increasingly realized the importance of addressing the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of nature’s contributions to people holistically and with great urgency. The Nexus Assessment will help inform consideration of synergies and trade-offs in terms of social, economic, and environmental impacts.
McElwee’s primary research interests revolve around how communities and households are impacted by and adapting to environmental change, and how policies and governance can help or hinder sustainability efforts. She was one of the lead authors of the IPBES global assessment in 2019, the first large-scale global assessment on biodiversity since 2005. The 1,500-page IPBES report was compiled by hundreds of international experts and was based on thousands of scientific studies. It is an exhaustive look at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers such a decline creates for man. In 2020, McElwee testified before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology regarding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land, of which she was a lead author.
“The IPBES Global Assessment provided the scientific basis for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework that will be agreed by governments later this year at CBD COP 15,” said Dr. Larigauderie. “The Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments will build on that evidence and data – helping decision-makers at all levels to better implement the actions needed to meet these goals and targets for people and for nature.
To read more about Drs. McElwee’s and Payne’s international work at COP 28 click here https://www.app.com/story/news/local/land-environment/2023/12/06/cop28-rutgers-dubai-climate-change-summit-nj/71804980007/