March 7, 2018 – Dr. Damilola S. Olawuyi visited the William S. Richardson School of Law and spoke as the key speaker at the Environmental Law Program event, Climate Change, Human Rights and the Talanoa Dialogue. Dr. Olawuyi is an associate professor of petroleum, energy, and environmental law at the HBKU University of Qatar and chancellor’s fellow at the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy and Environment, Nigeria. He discussed the potential of the Talanoa Dialogue to help address climate change and human rights.

Dr. Olawuyi’s work focuses on the intersection of human rights and climate change. He emphasized that actors must use a climate justice approach when taking action against climate change. Without such a perspective, projects may aggravate human rights concerns. A climate justice perspective involves integrating human rights norms into the framework for implementing climate change projects.

The Talanoa Dialogue is a problem-solving approach, which involves telling stories and empathizing with others. Dr. Olawuyi discussed the potential of such an approach in a human rights based climate change framework. The emphasis on allowing people to share stories in order to share experiences and knowledge and build trust simplifies introducing human rights into the climate change framework.

MS – 4/18/2018