A lot has been written over the past few years about the benefits of Blockchain for information security. As a public digital ledger it records transactions from many computers so that the records cannot be amended retrospectively. It has become such a trusted source of information a court in China has recently allowed it to be used as evidence in a case of copyright infringement. Blockchain is now being used to bolster agreements such as the Paris Agreement (“PA”) on Climate Change whose objective is to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The PA established universal and harmonized measurement, reporting, and verification (“MRV”) provisions for climate change mitigation. It is a common sy

Our firm has been appointed to write the Thailand chapter of the ICLG on Climate Change for the next three years. The guide is published in association with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and it will be available around November 2019. Organisations regularly accessing the ICLG on Climate Change include: In-House Departments and Government Agencies Acciona • AECOM • Bank of America • Black & Veatch • Chevron • Citigroup • Con Edison Energy • Constellation • Deutsche Bank • Ecofys • Ecopetrol • EDF • Enel • ENGIE • Eni • Ernst & Young • European Climate Foundation • European Parliament • FirstEnergy • Gazprom • HSBC • Kemira • Lukoil • Lundin Mining • Marathon Oil • Rio Tinto • Saudi Aramco •

Great two day conference in Guangzhou on Climate Change at Sun Yat-Sen School of Law, Institute of South China Sea Strategy and DUANMU ZHENG Foundation. Photo with some of the speakers Dr. Marjan Peeters (Professor of Environmental Policy and Law at Maastricht University) Dr. Yue Zhao, Associate Research Fellow Sichuan University, School of Law, China, Associate Professor Junjie Zhang, Director Environmental Research Center, Duke Kunsban University, Jiangsu China. The research paper I presented during the conference is reproduced below. CLIMATE CHANGE AND PARIS AGREEMENT WORKSHOP Opportunities and Challenges for International Environmental Law and Politics Sun Yat-sen School of Law, Institu

The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change[1] has prompted countries to consider stronger policies to achieve de-carbonization. One of the most efficient ways to reduce GHG emissions is the carbon pricing policy instruments. In this regard Asia is rapidly establishing itself as new Emission Trading Scheme (“ETS”) hub. To help speed industries’ transition away from emissions-intensive production, Asian countries are increasingly exploring carbon pricing policies[2]. Some of the recent encouraging developments include China official - even though soft - launch of its nationwide ETS in December 2017[3], South Korea reforms in the ETS and its Government’s approval of ETS’s Phase 2 on July 2018[

I am delighted INTA has invited me to speak on IP and Climate Change at INTA Dubai Conference on December 10-11, 2018. And above all, I am very much honored to share the Climate Change topic with the conference’s keynote speaker, Michael Haddad. At the age of 6, Mike was subject to a spinal cord injury from a jet ski accident, which left him paralyzed from the chest down, or in other words 75 % of his body is completely paralyzed. Against all odds and despite the medical impossibility to walk again, Mike has managed to overturn physical incompetency outset into a message of strength through his belief “turning disability into a distinctive ability” Mike is appointed as a 2016 leader of the

There are high expectations resulting from the Paris Agreement (“PA”) as a milestone in global efforts to address Climate Change. Such efforts encompass a wide range of measures at many levels. Chief among them is the long-term global energy technology diffusion patterns required to reach a Climate Change target with a maximum average atmospheric temperature increase of 2˚ celcius by 2100. My research paper I will present at Sun Yat-Sen University on September 15, 2018 will critically evaluate the coherence between the law of the global economy principally WTO related agreements with the PA by exploring the legality of barriers against harmful technologies to Climate Change and mechanisms, s

On August 31, 2018, I met with Tomoya MOTODA and Hiroyuki SAITO of the Global Environment Center Foundation (GECF), Climate Change Division, in Osaka. The object of my meeting was to discuss the financial mechanism established by the GECF : the Joint Credit Mechanism ("JCM"). In brief, the JCM is a system to finance, up to 50 %, the total cost of transferring low carbon technologies originating from Japan to developing countries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ("GHGs"). Its 2018 budget is Japanese Yen 6.9 billion (approximately USD 69 million). Under the JCM, Japan is able evaluate its contributions to GHG emission reductions or removals in a quantitative manner and use them to

Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2016, Parties need to issue its implementing rules also known as “rule book” to give details and guidance on implementing the Paris Agreement. The rule book is seen as a major test of the international commitment of the Paris Agreement since it should bring the PA to further steps further. Several issues causing delay in adopting the “rule book” relate to the financing mechanism embedded into the PA (USD 100 billion a year by 2020) to help developing nations cope with rising temperatures and cut their emissions. UN delegates agreed to hold an extra session in Bangkok from September 3-8, 2018 before environment ministers meet in Katowice, Polan