30 Climate COPs Later: Stories from Canadian Participants is a new edited volume that takes stock of the past thirty years of United Nations climate negotiations, offering a detailed look at these crucial issues amid intensifying climate impacts and growing tensions in multilateral cooperation.
The book offers a timely and critical reflection on the role of the UN climate change conferences – or Conference of the Parties (COPs) – in addressing the global climate crisis, through the perspectives of Canadian participants who helped shape them. Drawing on firsthand accounts from diplomats, scientists, parliamentarians, Indigenous leaders, journalists, municipal leaders, NGOs and unions – as well as other influential figures in Canadian civil society – the volume provides a rare behind-the-scenes perspective on the evolving dynamics of international climate diplomacy.
The contributors to 30 Climate COPs Later share diverse and often deeply personal reflections on the complexity, progress, and limitations of the COPs. Through their stories and anecdotes, the book highlights historic achievements such as those reached in Kyoto and Paris, as well as missed opportunities and ongoing structural challenges. Several chapters foreground Indigenous perspectives, municipal leadership, and emerging voices, underscoring the breadth of voices now shaping climate governance.
The full list of contributors and the table of contents are available on the publisher’s website.
The book is co-edited by Civil Law Section Professors Thomas Burelli and Lynda Hubert Ta, alongside Professor Alexandre Lillo (UQÀM), Professor Lauren Touchant (Vancouver Island University), and doctoral student Elie Klee (University of Ottawa). Professors Burelli and Hubert Ta’s involvement as co-editors reflects their longstanding engagement with international environmental law, climate governance, and multilateral institutions. The result is a volume that is both analytically rigorous and accessible to a wide readership, including students, practitioners, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of global climate action.
30 Climate COPs Later: Stories from Canadian Participants is now available.