Sandra Cassotta

Background

About Sandra Cassotta

I am currently Associate Professor in International, Environmental and Energy Law at the Department of Law at Aalborg University where I teach Climate Change & Energy Law, Environmental Law, Arctic Governance, and Human Rights. I am currently appointed as Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) at the Intergovernamental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the next Report IPCC AR7 on Sustainable Development and Mitigation to Climate Change from 2025-2028. I was also appointed Lead Author on Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic) at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) United Nations from 2017-2019. I am specialized in environmental damage and liability problems in a multilevel context. My expertise is on environmental regime effectiveness in a multi-level governance perspective. Included in my areas of interests are human rights, law of the sea (UNCLOS), and environmental security (particularly that of the Arctic Ocean), Energy Security and Geopolitics. Though I am legal scholar, my approach is interdisciplinary, combining law with international relations, economics, and elements of (climate) environmental science, the ultimate purpose of which is to improve regime effectiveness. I am also non-resident Research Fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) in Stockholm working under the ISDP's Sino-Nordic Arctic Policy Program (SNAPP) and Member of the Advisory Board for the Programme MARINFORSK of the Research Council of Norway. I published for Kluwer Law International, Energy Environmental Law Review, Year Book of Polar Law, Revue du Droit de l ’Union Européenne, among others. I was born and raised in Brussels, holds a B.A. in language from the European School of Brussels (Uccle), a M.S. in political science from the State University of Milan (Italy), and Ph.D. in international environmental law from Aarhus University (Denmark). I worked for 14 years in the private and public sectors, and worked as media press and information officer at the International Olive Oil Council (United Nations aegis) for several years in Madrid (Spain), writing press releases, session reports of intergovernmental meetings, and official briefings.