Environmental Law Specialist

The consultancy will contribute to strengthening the legal, regulatory and institutional readiness of selected Latin American countries to operationalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and participate effectively in carbon markets. Through a common but flexible regional analytical framework, country-level legal and institutional assessments, stakeholder engagement and South-South exchange with countries with more advanced experience, the consultancy will identify legal and regulatory gaps, institutional needs, areas of conflict or coherence, and transferable approaches. The resulting evidence, analysis and recommendations will support in a second phase of the project national counterparts in developing or strengthening clear, transparent and effective legal and institutional frameworks for Article 6, while ensuring environmental integrity, human rights, meaningful stakeholder participation and consistency with national climate objectives and carbon-pricing instruments.

Home based

6 Months

Background: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. UNEP is the United Nations system’s lead entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. The overall objective of the UNEP’s Law Division is to carry out the functions of UNEP in the field of environmental law, governance, and related policy issues, including those related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). To fulfil its mandate, the work of the Law Division focuses on leading the international community in the progressive development of environmental law; supporting States in the development and implementation of legal, institutional and policy measures that address emerging and important environmental challenges; facilitating cooperation and coordination among MEAs and between UNEP and those agreements; working with MEAs Secretariats to support Parties to the respective MEAs in implementing their treaty obligations; and facilitating policy dialogue among States on issues relating to international environmental law and governance. One of the Law Division’s focus areas is to provide technical assistance and capacity building support to countries to strengthen the development and implementation of environmental law and governance frameworks in a coherent and effective way and to fulfil their obligations as Parties to MEAs. The Montevideo Programme on the Progressive Development and Implementation of Environmental Law serves as a guiding framework for the identification of key environmental law areas and supports the implementation of priority actions in environmental law and governance at the national and regional level. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement enables countries to cooperate voluntarily in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the creation of carbon markets, in which States or companies can implement mitigation activities and reduce their emissions. The core rules and guidance for launching the implementation of the article 6 mechanisms have recently been adopted. Governments in the Latin American (LA) region face substantial gaps in legal and technical expertise when translating and adapting this technically complex international framework into domestic regulations. Yet, the LA region presents great opportunities to host mitigation activities across multiple sectors. Countries in the LA region find themselves in comparable situations, with many of them operating within civil-law systems. UNEP proposes a flexible analytical framework capable of identifying common legal and institutional building blocks, transferable regulatory approaches and core governance and institutional elements that can be adapted to each country’s legal system, institutional architecture, national priorities, specific context and stage of Article 6 implementation. This approach will enable countries to benefit from regional experience while preserving ownership over the design and implementation of their domestic legal and institutional frameworks. In this context, UNEP is recruiting an international consultant to strengthen legal, regulatory, and institutional capabilities in five selected countries, with a South-South cooperation component. This work directly contributes to UNEP’s mandate to strengthen the environmental rule of law and environmental governance by supporting the development of legal frameworks and institutional capacities for the implementation of Article 6. It also reinforces the objectives of the Montevideo Programme V and contributes to global climate governance efforts under the the exchange of legal and regulatory experiences among the countries of the region, including lessons learned by pioneering countries identified as peers in the context of this project. Duties and Responsibilities: Under the supervision of a Legal Officer of the Law Division, the consultant will provide specialized technical legal and policy support to UNEP, in particular: - Convene the participating countries, the peer contributors and UNEP in a regional virtual kick off to introduce the project. - Lead four online country engagement meetings with selected countries and UNEP for the inception of the project with relevant stakeholders. - Map relevant actors, rules and institutions relevant to the carbon market in each of the selected countries, both within climate policy and across other pertinent sectoral policies. While the project focuses on Article 6.2 cooperative approaches, the mapping shall also capture each country’s Article 6.4 status (national authority designation and Host Party arrangements) as part of the institutional picture. - Harmonize and quality-assure the mapped information in a common table of actors and rules, accompanied by a consolidated descriptive report identifying any remaining information gaps. - Prepare information gathering instruments such as questionnaires to interview key actors, by category of actor. - Conduct the interviews and questionnaires with identified key actors in each target country. - Provide a synthesis of the responses to the questionnaires and interviews, and a short note setting out the corroborated findings.

An advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Environmental Law, Administrative Law, Public International Law or Public Policy is required. A first level university law degree in combination with 2 additional qualifying years of experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. A minimum of two (2) years of professional experience in environmental or administrative law, with an emphasis on public policy instruments and institutional design is required. Verifiable experience in carbon markets and article 6 of the Paris Agreement is required. Previous experience working with national government entities in Latin America on environmental matters is required. Previous experience in stakeholder engagement in public institutions is desired. Working knowledge of the UN system and specifically the work of UNEP related to MEAs is desired.

Fluency in oral and written English is required. Fluency in oral and written Spanish is required.

Not available.

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.