What Faculty do you work in?
FHSS

What is your main area of research?
Environmental Law

Why is your research important?
I work primarily on international law and climate change – so importance comes with the territory. We know that human-induced global heating is already having significant impacts on everyday life across the globe and that this is only going to intensify over time. We also know that the global response to climate change is inadequate – too slow and lacking in ambition. If climate change is not to become an existential threat to humanity we need to do better – and law is central to that.

What SDG is your research most closely aligned with?
Law is a cross-cutting discipline and can be involved in any of the goals. My own work allies most closely with goals 5, 13, and 16.

What do you hope to accomplish with your research?
I hope to find ways to contribute to better action on climate change. One thing that law can help with is bringing a more diverse range of voices to the table – we need to harness all human agency to address the huge environmental challenges that we face, and we are not currently doing so. If we keep making decisions based on the views of the few and the privileged, we will keep acting in the ways that have brought about our current predicament and not make the profound societal changes required to address climate change.

Is there a cross-disciplinary element to your research? If so, who else at the University is involved?
Yes – environmental law research inevitably involves interdisciplinarity. I sit on both the CARN and CARI steering groups to bring law to the table in dialogue with the social sciences and STEM subjects with a view to maximizing the real-world impact of our research.

Are there any external collaborators involved?
I work with a range of external collaborators from academia (world-wide) and beyond. I have worked with Welsh Government and a range of NGOs – currently my input in this area is focused on the UNFCCC CoP in Azerbaijan and I have been advising Legal Response to assist developing states prepare to participate in gender aspects of the conference negotiations and spoken with She Changes Climate about strategizing gender issues in the run up to the event. I am also in discussion with The Court of the Citizens of the World about a Climate Justice Tribunal focusing on Human Rights and Climate Change.

What is next for your research?
Reflecting on the CoP and looking for ways forward to secure a just, inclusive, and effective transition to a low carbon society.

 

Professor Karen Morrow