[CANCELLED][SMULA] Recent Highlights in International Law and Green Shipping Transition <Liu Nengye>

The shipping industry carries more than 80% of goods for global trade, providing an essential service to the world’s economy. The International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s 4th Green House Gas (GHG) Study, published in 2020, finds that shipping’s share of global anthropogenic GHG emissions increased from 2.76% in 2012 to 2.89% in 2018. 

Under a business-as-usual scenario, shipping emissions could increase by 90%-130% of their 2008 levels by 2050. Moreover, in a historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law published in 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea made it clear that “Anthropogenic GHG emissions into the atmosphere constitute pollution of the marine environment within the meaning of Article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph 4, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is therefore imperative that states begin to accelerate maritime decarbonisation to meet one of the main goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement – to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”. 

This webinar provides the latest international legal development on maritime decarbonisation. It also examines whether the current international legal framework on the prevention, reduction and control of vessel-source pollution is sufficient to deal with GHG emissions from shipping and accelerate the green shipping transition.  

This session is part of the SMU Law Academy “Recent Highlights” series. Designed with the busy practitioner in mind, this series provides participants with a convenient platform to obtain timely and practical bite-sized analysis of the latest developments in various areas of the law. The series will be taught by leading and experienced experts curated from academia and practice. Each topic in the series is distilled into a short-duration online webinar so that busy legal professionals can be effectively updated with the most material developments affecting their practice.
   
   

SPEAKER

Dr LIU Nengye (LLB & LLM, Wuhan, PhD, Ghent) is Associate Professor at Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, where he teaches and conducts research on law and sustainability. 

Assoc Prof LIU has taken the lead to edit three books: “The European Union and the Arctic” (Brill, 2017), “Governing Marine Living Resources in the Polar Regions” (Edward Elgar, 2019); “The Law of the Sea and the Planetary Crisis” (Routledge, 2025); published 50+ refereed journal articles (e.g., Leiden Journal of International Law, Marine Policy, Ocean Development and International Law, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Review of European Comparative and International Environmental Law, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law) and book chapters (e.g., Cambridge University Press, Hart) in the fields of the law of the sea and international environmental law; and delivered 100+ presentations about his research findings across five continents. He is regularly covered by mainstream media around the world. 

He sits on the editorial board of Marine Policy (Elsevier), Ocean Development and International Law (Taylor & Francis) and Polar Record (Cambridge University Press). Dr Liu is the Co-Founder of SMU-Sydney-HKU Asia Pacific Research Alliance on Law and Sustainability (2023 – present). He is a member of the International Law Association Committee Urbanisation and International Law – Potentials and Pitfalls (2024 – present). He also served as Co-Chair of American Society of International Law’s International Environmental Law Interest Group (2021 – 2024); Member of the Governing Board, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (2021 – 2024); and Director of Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University in Sydney (2020 – 2022).

FEES

The SMU Law Academy has an established track record of providing the legal profession with high quality seminars and other opportunities to remain fully informed about contemporary legal developments in Singapore and beyond. Its carefully curated listing of seminars is developed with the profession’s multi-faceted needs in mind and meets the requirements of the CPD scheme. The Academy also administers the Auditing Scheme which enables members of the legal profession to consolidate and upgrade their understanding of the law by auditing courses in the School’s LL.B., J.D. and LL.M. programmes. For an overview of upcoming SMU Law Academy events, please click here.


 

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