What Does Climate Law Mean for Pandemic Governance?

About the session Climate change and pandemic preparedness are often governed through different institutions, legal frameworks, and professional communities. But the risks themselves do not respect those boundaries. The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on climate change raises important questions about states’ obligations in responding to climate-related harms. At the same time, the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement creates a new framework for how countries cooperate to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. What happens when we put the two together? This roundtable, convened by the Health Diplomacy Youth Network, will bring people working across climate change law and pandemic governance into the same conversation to consider how obligations articulated through the ICJ Advisory Opinion might be systemically integrated into the mechanisms of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The aim is to move beyond simply acknowledging that climate change affects health. Instead, the discussion will examine what the evolving legal architecture around climate change could mean for the design and implementation of global pandemic governance. Where do the two frameworks already reinforce one another? Where are there gaps? What mechanisms within pandemic governance could give practical effect to climate-related obligations? And what would closer integration require from negotiators, governments, international institutions, practitioners, and others shaping implementation? The session is also an opportunity to connect communities of expertise that do not always work together, despite confronting increasingly interconnected risks. What to expect A focused expert roundtable bringing together perspectives from climate law, global health, and pandemic governance. Rather than approaching the relationship between climate and health at a broad thematic level, participants will work directly with the implications of the ICJ Advisory Opinion and the mechanisms of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, looking for concrete points of intersection. The conversation will draw on the experience of negotiators, practitioners, academics, philanthropists, young people, and others working across these fields. The emphasis will be on rigorous but exploratory exchange: identifying where integration is legally and institutionally possible, where further thinking is needed, and what questions should be carried into implementation. Who this is for This session is for people working on climate change law, global health diplomacy, pandemic preparedness and governance, international law, policy, philanthropy, and multilateral institutions, as well as young leaders interested in how these governance systems can respond more coherently to interconnected global risks. What you will get out of it A clearer understanding of the intersection between emerging climate obligations and pandemic governance Cross-disciplinary perspectives from climate law and global health Practical exploration of where climate considerations could be integrated into mechanisms of the WHO Pandemic Agreement Identification of legal, institutional, and implementation questions that require further work New connections between communities working on climate governance and pandemic preparedness Hosted by Health Diplomacy Youth Network