Official Climate Week NYC events calendar

Sovereignty and Liberation Summit: Understanding Climate Reparations & Climate Migration

Event by: Taproot Earth, the Just Transition Lawyering Network, the Global Justice Clinic, the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU Law, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Event format
In-person
Event duration
3 hours
Language
English
Hosted by Taproot Earth, the Just Transition Lawyering Network (JTLN), the Global Justice Clinic, the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this portion of the Sovereignty & Liberation Summit is a three-hour gathering bringing movements, advocates, legal practitioners, and climate finance perspectives into conversation around what transformative approaches to justice, sovereignty, and repair can look like in practice. The Summit begins with an opening welcome from Taproot Earth and lunch, creating space to gather before moving into two connected conversations that approach climate justice and repair from different but deeply related directions. The first session, Climate Reparations: Harnessing the Law for Transformation, examines a rapidly evolving international legal landscape. Panelists will consider the possibilities and limitations of recent climate advisory opinions from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and International Court of Justice, alongside the forthcoming opinion from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and explore how law and lawyers can support movement-led demands for accountability, responsibility, and Global Climate Reparations. Following a 15-minute break, Climate Migration and Finance: Bridging the Gaps From a Frontline Perspective turns from emerging legal pathways to the question of resourcing people and places already navigating a changing climate. Grounded in the rights to remain, migrate, and return, the conversation will bring frontline perspectives into dialogue with climate finance policy to examine where current systems fall short and what more accessible, accountable, and community-driven approaches could make possible. Together, the two sessions trace a larger question running through the Summit. How can emerging frameworks for climate responsibility be connected to the resources, decision-making power, and infrastructure communities need to realize repair? Attendees are invited to experience the full program, beginning with the opening and lunch at 12 p.m. and continuing through both conversations and a closing reflection.