Lavanya Rajamani featured in Vice-Chancellor's 'Fire and Wire' podcast on climate and human rights

In a recent episode of 'Fire and Wire', Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey speaks with Oxford experts on the University's interdisciplinary approach to climate research, featuring significant contributions from Lavanya Rajamani, Professor of International Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law.  

The podcast explores the growing intersection between climate change and human rights law, with Professor Rajamani providing expert insights on how human rights frameworks are increasingly being applied to climate litigation. 

'Human rights is not the only lens, but it is a really critical lens in this area', explains Professor Rajamani. 'What's intriguing is that this is a lens that wasn't actually brought to bear on the climate change problematic until fairly late in the game'. 

Professor Rajamani highlights the 2024 Klimaseniorinnen judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Switzerland was not doing enough to address climate change. This case represents a significant development in climate litigation, with courts beginning to address issues relating to adequacy and fairness of national climate actions, issues that the international negotiations have deliberately sidestepped. 

The discussion also covers Professor Rajamani's current research, which focuses on examining how the Paris Agreement is evolving in response to scientific evidence and political developments, and developing ways to address gaps in the international climate regime through interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The podcast features additional contributions from Professor Helen Johnson, who leads the Oxford Climate Research Network, and Dr Roberta Wilkinson, who discusses a recent global summit co-hosted by Oxford and UN Human Rights that focused on climate change and human rights. 

Listen to the full episode on Audioboom or Spotify. 

Fire and Wire is the Vice-Chancellor's podcast series featuring conversations with Oxford experts on pressing global challenges.  

This episode is hosted by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey. 

Guests: 

Professor Lavanya Rajamani (Faculty of Law) 

Professor Helen Johnson (Department of Earth Sciences) 

Dr Roberta Wilkinson (Oxford Climate Research Network)