International expert organizations and subsidiary bodies (on scientific matters) of international treaties on environment and climate change
As an observer, the ICLRC regularly participates in the developing documents and draft decisions of international organizations, including providing expert support on climate and biodiversity issues from a legal perspective. At the same time, scientific data play an important role in political decision-making, rule-making and law enforcement when it comes to complex, primarily natural science issues. To assist decision-making authorities, the scientific community has established a number of subsidiary bodies on scientific matters under a number of international treaties, as well as autonomous expert structures with broad international participation.
The ICLRC has prepared a review (in Russian) of the formation and operation of some bodies and organizations involved in environmental, biodiversity and climate change issues, including:
- the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA),
- the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs),
- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and
- the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
While preparing the material, we primarily used official documents, on which the activities of these bodies are based. Useful information on the practical side of their work was also provided by the directly involved experts, Alexander Shestakov and Sergey Semenov, to whom we are very grateful for their valuable comments.
OTHER PUBLICATONS
_1678106135.png)
Experience: Since September 2021 — Independent expert (Moscow, Russian Federation); 2018-2021 — Director, Department of Science, Society and Sustainable Futures, Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal, Canada); 2010-2018 — Director, WWF Global Arctic Programme and WWF representative at the Arctic Council (Ottawa, Canada); 2006-2010 — Director, HSE Department at BP Russia (Moscow, Russian Federation); 2000-present — Expert and representative at the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology (Moscow, Russian Federation); 2001-2006 — Expert and representative at the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology (Moscow, Russian Federation); 2000-2006 — National representative at TRAFFIC Europe-Russia (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1999-2006 — Environmental Law Officer and Conservation Programme Director at WWF Russia (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1995-2005 — Expert at the Highest Ecological Council of the Committee on Ecology, State Duma of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1991-1999 — Expert at International Environmental consultancies (Dames & Moore, ERM, Arthur DeLittle, DHV, Haskoning, ICF/EKO, Branan) (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1991-2000 — researcher at the Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russian Federation). Education: 2000 — Global environmental law at The British Council (Edinburgh, UK); 1995-1997 — Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) international programme (Moscow, Russian Federation - San Jose, Costa Rica – Naha, Japan – Harare, Zimbabwe); 1991-1995 — MA at the Faculty of Law, Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1993 — PhD in Geography at Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1988-1991 — postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation); 1989-1990 — research fellow at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India); 1982-1988 — MSc at the Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University (Moscow, Russian Federation).