Very good evening and of course a happy new year to everyone.

We are starting again with our lecture series on business

and human rights and it is my extreme privilege and pleasure

to welcome our colleague and my good friend Robert McCorkadale

for the first lecture in this year, calendar year.

Robert is a professor of international law and business,

sorry, international law and human rights at the School

of Law at the University of Nottingham,

but that's only one of his many positions and many activities.

He's also an active barrister at big court chambers

where he practices public international law.

He appeared both before the Supreme Court of the UK,

but also before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Robert has also been for 10 years the director

of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

And previously was also an associate professor

at the Australian National University.

And he's definitely in my view, one of the leading experts,

both academic but also practicing experts

on business and human rights.

And it's wonderful to have you here, Robert,

and to listen to your presentation

on climate change challenges in business and human rights.

And you have the floor.

Thank you so much, Marcus.

It's far too kind an introduction.

And I should just say how deeply impressed I am

by the program that you've created,

both in this extraordinary lecture series,

but also in terms of your PhD students.

I mean, it just is, as far as I know,

unparalleled in the eye of the university.

And congratulations on that.

Okay, so I'm looking at climate change challenges.

Why? Because I've been trying to work on this issue,

both conceptually how it makes sense,

but also in practice, how we can do something in this area.

So let me just start, if I can, if it goes,

to look at some of the news we're seeing every day

about climate change.

I've just given a selection from around the world.

We see time and time again,

this sense to which climate change is something

which is very, very present.

Now, that's of course not a surprise,

but what do we mean by climate change?

So I'm gonna begin with a little bit more kind of,

a bit of climate science, a bit of international documents.

Why? Because I guess I feel if we're to understand

what we're talking about when we're looking at climate change,