Webinar: Lessons Learned from Attendances at the UNFCCC – COP Meetings
Mar 9, 2020
|
Mediators Beyond Borders
Webinar
View Original
Webinar: Lessons Learned from Attendances at the UNFCCC – COP Meetings
Join us in our next conversation on Lessons Learned from Attendances at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – Conference of Parties (COP) Meetings by Joseph Siegel and Suzanna Norbeck, Team Members of MBBI’s Climate Change Policy Project on Monday, March 9, 2020, at 12:00 PM ET (UTC -5). This webinar is the second in our CCPP webinar series. In this webinar, Joe and Suzi will share their experiences at the Conference of Parties (COP) meetings and related summits to explain the unique challenges and opportunities the climate crisis presents for our community of conflict management professionals.
MBBI’s Climate Change Policy Project (CCPP) has had a presence at the United Nations Conference of Parties meetings since the Copenhagen meeting in 2009. Throughout the years, CCPP has learned important lessons about the relationship between the climate crisis and conflict as well as the critical need, in a changing climate, for building global capacity for conflict prevention, conflict resolution and collaboration.
Since 2009, a dedicated project team has represented MBBI at over 20 official meetings held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Throughout these meetings, project team members have advanced our goal:
To include mediation as a legitimate and expected dispute process within the negotiated Climate Change Agreement text for both the creation and application of policies intended to address the prevention, resolution and peaceful settlement of climate change disputes.
By sharing their numerous experiences at the Conference of Parties (COP) meetings and related summits, Joe and Suzi will explain how mediators can play a crucial leadership role within the climate change policy process by addressing the many and constantly changing parties and their evolving relationships.
Joseph Siegel has dedicated his career towards analyzing and addressing this ever-pertinent global dilemma for over 30 years. He is a senior attorney, trained mediator, and private consultant, specializing in climate change and environmental conflict resolution. He is also an Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution Specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Regional Counsel in New York and teaches a variety of related courses, such as Environmental Dispute Resolution and Adaptation to Climate Change, at Haub School of Law at Pace University as well as Hofstra Law School. Joe is a Team Member on the Climate Change Policy Project, MBBI-NY Regional Group, and United Nations Multilateral Working Group.
In his current practice and teaching on climate change, Joseph finds that his law students and the many stakeholders he works with, feel passionate about taking action “… which often creates potential for conflict between parties who otherwise have a common goal.” Mediation gives him the capacity to engage with these dynamics.
As a seasoned conflict resolution specialist with the EPA, Joseph focuses on climate change and air pollution law and policy as well as the mediation of large environmental disputes. While litigation was a significant part of his job earlier in his career, he now frequently acts as a neutral facilitator to help stakeholders arrive at sustainable solutions. Among many accomplishments, Joseph has served as a mediator and facilitator, both within the Agency and as a consultant outside the Agency, on matters including green building codes, renewable energy, resilient communities, post-disaster sustainable development, and climate science, among others.
In the years ahead, Joseph hopes that mediation will continue to be used more readily as a tool for state and local governments as well as NGOs and businesses around the world to refine their goals and improve their climate action agendas.
Suzanna Norbeck got involved with mediation early in life, after first becoming an attorney, by setting up her own practice in 1992 in family mediation. Helping to support MBBI’s focus on building local skills for peace and promoting mediation worldwide, her experience has been both domestic and international. Added to this expertise, she has directed the Rhode Island Foreign Policy program for five years and participated in exchanges with mediators across the globe.
She is currently involved with the UN Conference on Climate Change through MBBI, which looks to educate and inform delegates about mediation in the context of climate change-related conflicts, and encourage them to include mediation as a dispute resolution procedure in the final accords. Along with Dr. Thomas Fiutak, Suzi led the first CCPP webinar last December on Managing Climate Crisis Conflicts: A Decade of MBBI Work in the UN Climate Change Negotiations.
Suzi is very active in MBBI’s Membership Committee. She is constantly trying to ensure members get what they need from the organization. She applies an all-encompassing approach when it comes to who should join the mediation family. A good example of this is how she recently gathered members’ interests in an online Peer Mediation and/or Juvenile Victim/Offender Mediation group. While many would think first and foremost about the legal skill, she insists that non-legal mediators bring a lot to the process as well.
Suzi has been a crucial part of MBBI since it’s beginning in 2009. She is a founding member of MBBI and a Team Leader on the Climate Change Policy Project, The Membership Committee, Resource Development Committee, Rotary Working Group, and Children and Youth Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group. Suzi personally welcomes every new MBB member herself either by phone, skype or email.