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Six months ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark advisory opinion clearly outlining the legal obligations of States to prevent and remedy climate harm. In this webinar our keynote speaker Kate Wilson, who represented the island state Saint Lucia in front of the ICJ, will provide an overview of the Advisory Opinion’s main findings, explore its legal implications, and share her expectations regarding its potential impact from the perspective of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). She will also comment on the upcoming vote on the UN General Assembly resolution led by Vanuatu, which aims to translate this historic ruling into concrete action.

Her keynote will be followed by a comment by Gerlinde Schörghofer, environmental lawyer at ÖKOBÜRO, on how the EU and Austria can and should operationalize the ICJ Advisory Opinion within its national legal and policy frameworks.

The webinar will conclude with a focused discussion on what the Advisory Opinion means in the Austrian context, including Austria’s legal and political responsibilities as an EU Member State and the implications for national climate legislation and policy.

Speakers

Kate Wilson is a former legal Officer at the Department of Sustainable Development of Saint Lucia and has led the Saint Lucian Delegation in front of the ICJ in 2025.  

Gerlinde Schörghofer is an environmental lawyer at ÖKOBÜRO specializing in European and international law. She works on climate protection law, fundamental and human rights, and nature conservation law (under European law) in general.

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Registration

Registration closed on 19 March 2026.

Contact

veranstaltungen@globaleverantwortung.at

This training is organized by Ilona Reindl, Policy Officer at Global Responsibility, and Martin Krenn, climate expert at KOO.

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