Journal of Environmental Law Annual Workshop: ‘New’ Environmental Problems: From AI to Removals
Location:
2.35 Hybrid teaching space
Edinburgh Futures Institute
Date/time
-
16/04/2026 09:00-16:00
17/06/2026 09:00-13:30
Join leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers at Edinburgh Law School for a two day workshop exploring emerging challenges in environmental law, from carbon dioxide removals to the expanding influence of artificial intelligence. Through five thematic panels and a trio of interdisciplinary sessions, participants will examine cutting edge developments in CDR regulation, AI’s environmental footprint, energy systems, and ecological governance. Contributions span law, geoscience, policy, and data science, offering a genuinely cross disciplinary forum for debate. This workshop provides an essential opportunity to engage with frontier research, regulatory innovation, and the evolving role of law in governing technological and environmental transformation.
16 April 2025
0930-1000: Welcome: Sanja Bogojević and Navraj Singh Ghaleigh
1000-1130: Panel 1: Law and Greenhouse Gas Removals
‘Between Localism and the Single Market: Regulating Carbon Removal in the EU’, Luka Štrubelj (Legal Center for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment)
‘Regulating within Environmental Limits: From Removals to Sufficiency in Housing’, Inês Azevedo (Stanford University)
‘Rendering Law Visible: Stakeholder Knowledge and the Hidden Regulation of Carbon Dioxide Removals’, Marsaili Van Looy (University of Edinburgh)
‘Integrating CO2-Removal into the Climate Regime’, Till Markus (University of Bremen)
Discussant/Chair: Sanja Bogojević (University of Oxford)
1130-1200: Team Walk
A walk on The Meadows, in the sunshine.
1200-1245: Lunch
1245-1400: Panel 2: Conceptualising AI in Environmental Law
‘A Materialist Account of Artificial Intelligence Industry Decarbonization: comparison between the United States and China’, Mingzhe Zhu (University of Glasgow)
‘Anticipating the Future, Conceptualising Risk: from Environmental Law and AI Regulation to Human Rights Law’, Vladislava Stoyanova (Lund University)
‘The integration of AI in Nuclear Energy’, Andrew Walters (University of Aberdeen)
Discussant/Chair: Chris Jones (University of Edinburgh)
1400-1415: Coffee
1415-1500: Interdisciplinary Perspectives #2
‘Navigating Uncertainty: Human Judgment, Data, and Law in Land-Use Decisions’, Prof Chris Dent (University of Edinburgh), Dr Sue Chadwick (Pinsent Masons)
1500-1615: Panel 3: AI, Information, and the Environment
‘Regulating Greenwashing in AI-Generated Corporate Non-Financial Reports’, Ranchun Wang (University of Groningen)
‘Invisible Emissions, Incomplete Disclosures: Bridging the Governance Gap on AI’s Climate Footprint’, Silvia Fregoni (UC Berkeley School of Law)
‘The public service of private parties: EU environmental protection through AI-powered provision of environmental information’, Renée Knoop (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Discussant/Chair: Michael Picard (University of Edinburgh)
1830: Drinks and dinner
17 April 2025
Edinburgh Futures Institute, Room 2.35
0900-0945: Interdisciplinary Perspectives #2:
“Law, Science, Policy: Meeting the Interdisciplinary Challenge”
On geoscience, CCS, and Law: Stuart Haszedine (University of Edinburgh) Government Needs From Lawyers, Cameron Henderson (DESNZ)
0945-1015: Coffee
1015-1115: Panel 4: Energy Law Challenges
‘Hyperscale Data Centres, Law, and Environmental Justice: Comparative Perspectives from the EU, UK, and Brazil’, Kleoniki Pouikli (Utrecht University), Costanza Di Francesco Maesa (University of Siena) and Feja Lesniewska (University of Surrey)
‘The Legal Order of Critical Energy Transition Minerals’, Julien Chaisse (City University of Hong Kong)
Discussant/Chair: Navraj Singh Ghaleigh (University of Edinburgh)
1115-1145: Elevenses
1145-1300: Panel 5: Law, Technology and Ecology
‘Natural Environment Processing’, Johan Stagstrup (Cleary Gottlieb)
‘From “Prohibitor” to “Regulator”: Recasting the Legal Regime of Marine Environmental Protection for Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage’, Meng Zhang (University of Copenhagen)
‘Enshrining temporal conservation areas as a tool of ecological urban law’, Aurelien Hucq (UCLouvain)
Discussant: Brad Jessup (University of Melbourne)
1300-1330: Concluding Remarks and Reflections
Sanja Bogojević and Navraj Singh Ghaleigh