**Company Number: 07385563 Charity Number: 1147043** ## **Legal Response International** ## **Annual Report and Accounts** **For the year ended 30 September 2020** **Legal Response International Reference and administrative details** |**Trustees**|Joss Saunders| |---|---| ||Niall Watson| ||Richard Dyton| ||Kate Cook| ||Silke Goldberg (Chair)| ||Matthew Morton| ||Anne Miller| ||Seth Osafo| ||Nicola Jane Mwase-Vuma| ||Victoria Bakulumpagi| |**Senior Management**|Christoph Schwarte, Executive Director| |**Company number**|07385563| |**Charity number**|1147043| |**Principal operating address**|C/O Simmons & Simmons,| ||CityPoint| ||One Ropemaker Street| ||London| ||EC2Y 9SS| |**Registered office**|C/O Simmons & Simmons,| ||CityPoint| ||One Ropemaker Street| ||London| ||EC2Y 9SS| |**Bankers**|Triodos Bank| ||Deanery Road| ||Bristol| ||BS1 5AS| 1 **Legal Response International** |Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 September 2020|| |---|---| |Report of the Trustees|3 - 7| |Independent Examiner's Report|8| |Statement of Financial Activities|9| |Balance Sheet|10| |Notes to the Financial Statements|11 - 14| 2 ## **Legal Response International** The trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year to 30 September 2020. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and compl revised 2019). ## **Structure, Governance and Management** ## **Governing Document** Legal Response International (LRI) is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 23 September 2010 and registered as a charity on 27 April 2012. The company is registered in England and Wales. The company is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. The company was formerly known as Legal Response Initiative and changed its name to Legal Response International on 28 February 2017. ## **Directors** The directors of the charitable company are its trustees for the purposes of charity law and the members of the company limited by guarantee. Throughout this report they are collectively referred to as the trustees. The following individuals served as trustees during the period: Joss Saunders Niall Watson Richard Dyton Kate Cook Silke Goldberg Matthew Morton Anne Miller Seth Osafo Nicola Jane Mwase-Vuma Victoria Bakulumpagi All trustees served for the full year. No trustees had any beneficial interest in the charity and no remuneration of trustees is paid by the charity. The Board of Trustees meets at least 3 times a year. It is responsible for the strategic direction, policy and overall governance of the charity. The Trustees delegate the strategy, management and coordination of LRI to the Executive Director who oversees a staff team which during the reporting period comprised two employees, consultants and a team of volunteers. The majority of trustees are all experienced lawyers, have worked with LRI on a long-term basis and their close involvement to date has ensured the charity stays true to its original vision, aims and objectives. ## **Recruitment and appointment of new trustees** Board members (directors) are appointed in line with articles 32 to 36 of LRI's Articles of Association. The board aims to ensure that there is a diverse range of skills, knowledge and experience available on the board. New members are invited to join the board based on their expertise following recommendations or - in the most recent case - an advertisement for charity trustees with financial experience and an interview. ## **Risk Management** The trustees maintain a risk register and regularly review the risks the charity faces. They are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate their exposure to the major risks. ## **Public Benefit** The Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty under Section 17 (1) of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit. LRI carries out a range of activities in furtherance of its charitable objectives, as detailed under Activities and Achievements below, which the trustees believe provide benefit to the general public worldwide. 3 **Legal Response International** ## **Objectives and principal activities** The international climate negotiations are among the most complex multilateral law and policy making processes ever. Meetings are characterised by technical jargon, carefully crafted wording and references to international legal principles and obligations. The delegations of industrialised countries therefore include specialised experts, lawyers and other support staff. Developing country negotiators who represent countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change can rarely rely on a similar backing. As a result, To create a level playing field between actors, Legal Response International (LRI), provides free legal advice and assistance to negotiation teams from poor and particularly climate vulnerable developing countries and civil society observer organisations. Without LRI, climate negotiators from these countries would find it difficult to access high quality legal advice. To provide legal support and assistance on a rapid response basis our advice service operates at three distinct levels: - Volunteer lawyers (under the supervision of an LRI staff member) attend and represent LRI at all UNFCCC negotiation sessions. They talk delegates through legal issues and provide ad-hoc support on the ground. When more complex issues are involved, they draft the legal query on which delegates need advice and forward it to the 'situation room' in London. Liaison officers are also responsible for developing and strengthening relationships with negotiators and NGOs from developing countries . - During the negotiations, LRI with the help of a group of volunteers also operates the situation r . The situation room is tasked to find an expert legal adviser. Situation room volunteers also help to undertake some initial legal research and to produce an internal information circular about the ongoing negotiations. This is disseminated to about 200 supporters - mostly members of the legal community in the lead-up to, during and after a conference. - The legal expert advisers are responsible for drafting legal opinions, research papers and other materials in response to specific questions. At present, LRI works through a network of around 170 lawyers from leading law firms, barrister chambers and universities based in 10 different jurisdictions. They have expertise in, for example, international environmental law and areas ancillary to the negotiations such as human rights, trade law, carbon trading, finance, insurance or intellectual property law. During the reporting period, LRI participated in one major international climate change conference: the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid in December 2019. A team of 6 LRI lawyers and volunteers attended the meeting. We also partnered with the IE (Instituto de Empresa) University Madrid Campus where a group of (in total around 30) university students to undertake research and support the lawyers in the negotiations. During the two week conference we recorded over 30 legal queries. Ten of those came from delegations that work together in the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), eight from members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and seven from the African Group of Negotiators (AGN). Five questions were from other developing countries (e.g. Thailand or Sri Lanka) and four from observer organisations. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, during the second half of the reporting period all further physical meetings were suspended. This has, to some extent, A climate legislation round-table workshop for government officials in Ethiopia (organised with additional - CIFF) in March had to be cancelled and without face-to-face contact it can be challenging to develop new relationships or have a frank conversation about issues a negotiator does not fully comprehend. As a small, agile organisation used to communicating with partners around the world electronically, LRI has, however, been able to keep channels of communication open with partners, advisers and other stakeholders; adjusted its modus operandi as necessary; and, in this way, was able to largely mitigate the adverse effects of lockdowns and travel restrictions. - 4 ## **Legal Response International** individual negotiators and delegations, facilitated Zoom meetings between clients and advisers to discuss specific legal issues and used new opportunities to present at or contribute to virtual events. While our partners in developing countries have traditionally been rather focused on face-to-face training events and meetings, as a result of the pandemic, they at least for the time being appear more willing to contemplate the use of other (virtual) formats too. Over the whole reporting period, LRI dealt with 55 formal requests for legal advice and assistance. The majority of queries came from LDCs (16), AOSIS (13), AGN (9) and other developing countries (7) with others from observer organisations (10). To respond to these requests LRI expert advisers contributed almost 500 pro bono hours of work (about 60 hours by senior lawyers, 200 hours by associates and 220 hours by juniors). The requests range from ad hoc advice on the drafting and interpretation of negotiation text to complex research assignments on the privileges and immunities usually granted to members of intergovernmental bodies. We also worked on several queries related to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which is the main outstanding (and contentious) area for the adoption of further rules on the implementation of the Agreement. All advice papers (completely anonymized) are posted to the LRI database where they are available free of charge to the public. According to Google Analytics, the LRI website has now around 1000 users per month. The majority of users are from the US, the UK and other European countries, but there are also increasing numbers from developing countries: e.g. in 2020 India 13%, Philippines 3.2% or Brazil 2.2%. With almost 10,000 visits during the reporting period (to access or download papers) the database is by far the most popular area of the LRI website. While most requests for legal assistance still pertain to the international dimension of the climate negotiations countries increasingly shift their focus from international diplomacy under the UNFCCC to domestic action. In this connection, we have been advising several small developing countries, such as Haiti, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Uganda, on the drafting or revision of their national climate change legislation and other governance arrangements to implement the Paris Agreement nationally. LRI also maintains the Climate Legislation Advice Portal - a web-based platform developed with the UN Environment Program that allows eligible users to submit legal questions related to the national implementation of Paris electronically. In collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism of Botswana, LRI held a two-day round-table capacity building workshop in Gaborone (Botswana) from 9-10 October 2019. Thirty government officials from different departments such as agriculture, transport, water and the Support Alliance (CASA). LRI provided an overview on expectations and opportunities under the Paris Agreement and participants discussed possible approaches and processes to develop new rules for Botswana. We highlighted different design options, lessons learnt in other jurisdictions and the available infrastructure of support. Strengthening the capacity of lawyers and climate policy makers from developing countries is generally at ecbi) lead organisations and participated in a workshop for junior negotiators from Asia and the Pacific on 21 July 2020. Under the ecbi umbrella we have also published a guidebook on the Paris Agreement in March. The guide contains the full text of the new treaty with detailed further explanations largely based on the subsequent decisions by parties (mainly in Katowice in 2018). It was launched because of the pandemic - through a virtual event in May 2020 available via youtube at: youtube.com/watch?v=TEskN8ZA2Ic&feature=youtu.be Based on the guide we have also developed a set of web tutorials available through our website at: legalresponse.org/further-resources/webinars. They give an introduction to key elements of the Paris Agreement and users can also test their knowledge. Other LRI e-learning materials and presentations are publicly available for free through the INFORMEA e-learning platform (at: e-learning.informea.org) and our website. In September 2020 we have started to build an App to make the content of the guide and further resources easily accessible via phones and tablet computers. ## **Activities and achievements** LRI has been present at the main UNFCCC meeting during the reporting period: Madrid, Spain, annual COP (CMP and CMA) to the UNFCCC, December 2019 5 ## **Legal Response International** During this period LRI produced the following knowledge products (available at legalresponse.org): - Guide to the Paris Agreement - Briefing paper on technical regulations based on international standards to mitigate climate change Web tutorials on the Paris Agreement with test your knowledge section LRI also co-organised or contributed to the following events: - Two-day round-table capacity building workshop in Gaborone, Botswana, 9-10 October - Web launch of Guide to the Paris Agreement - ecbi workshop for junior negotiators from Asia and the Pacific, on 21 July ## **Future plans** ; - To continue attending all main UNFCCC negotiating sessions, - To continue publishing background and briefing papers to explain legal content in accessible language, - To support longer-term sustainable capacity building activities and approaches for lawyers and climate negotiators, - To provide user-friendly advice relating to the national implementation of the Paris Agreement and NDCs, - To launch an App (based on the Paris Agreement Guide) that provides access to the text of the Paris Agreement and explanations on mobile phones and tablets, - To use the climate conference hosted by the UK (COP26) as an opportunity to train lawyers from developing countries, raise awareness for its work and reach each out to new supporters. It is hop although that will be funding dependent. ## **Financial review** Knowledge Network (created by the UK Government's Department for International Development, DfID) to provide free legal support to developing countries in relation to the UNFCCC negotiations. The initial contract was for the period of 5 November 2011 to 4 November 2012. This annually renewable contract was subsequently extended 6 times and ran to 31 December 2017. Subsequently government funding for climate negotiation support was moved to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) managing the budget. Since 2019 LRI has been part of a consortium led by PWC delivering a programme originally known as Capacity Building programme in International Negotiations (CaBIN), now rebranded as Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA). This 3-year programme will run until early 2022 with a possible extension of two further years. PWC contracts with individual consortium member on an annual basis, and the contract for the third year was signed in March 2021. In addition LRI agreed to contract manage an additional project commissioned by BEIS (via PWC) to assist the work of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) in the lead up to COP26 in the UK. Under the contract LRI can charge for up to 22 days of staff time for administrative work but the substantive project work is undertaken by researchers identified by the SBSTA chair and approved by PWC. The Trustees are keen to ensure the charity's commitments do not outgrow its revenues and remain grateful to the many LRI experts, volunteers and supporters who give their time freely and to Simmons & Simmons who provide pro bono serviced office space. 6 Legal Response International Trustees, report for the year ended 30 September 2020 In the year under review income fell by £14,492 10 £235,62112019'.£250,1131. This drop 15 due to reduced reimbursable expenses. following the can¢ellab"on of the COP25 in Santiago and the intioduclion of Covid- rel*ed travel restrictions in the second half of the financial year. Al the same lime expenditure rose by £7,622 to £219.40512019'. £211.7831 mainly due to the recrurtment of one additional staff increasing staff spend to offset the reducb'on in travel expenses. Importantty despite the disruptions the charty maintained a stable financial position and enjoyed net incoming resources for the year of £16,21612019." £38,330). Reserves All of the charity's income in this financial year has been unrestricled. including the payments under the BEIS contract. This means that the nel incoming resources for the year was added to reserves. The charity started the year wth reserves of £263,867 and ended it wth reserves of £280.083. The charity aims lo maintsin its stsff team and operations in the years ahead. and the Trustees are aware that lo do this il is necessary lo estsblish a reserve to manage llucluab.ons in income especially when the charity is so heavily reliant on a small number of key supporters. To that end they have set a target for reserves of a minimum of 6 months expenditure. Currenily reserves stand at approxirnately 15 months expenditure which although high is considered acceptable by the Tru51ees given the current funding uncertainty arising from the Ihrea15 of the economic downturn eaused by the pandemic and the UK Government's redu¢ty'on ol the aid budget. The Trustees understsnd they will need lo review both the target range and the level of reserves as the charity develops in the years ahead. Responslbilitles of the trustees In relatlon to the flnanclal statements The Iruslees Iwho are also directors of LRI for the purposes of eompany13wl are responsible for prèparing the Trustees, Report and the financial ststements in accordance wrth applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards Iuniled Kingdom Generally A¢¢epled A¢¢ounling Pra¢li¢el. Company law requires the trustees lo prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the slate of affairs of the charitable company and of the I￿omIng resources and application of resources. including the income and expenditure. of the charitable company for the year. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to.. select suitsble accounting policies and then apply Ihem consislenljy., observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP., make judgements and estimate5 that are Teasonable and prudent., prepare the financial slalemenls on the going concem basis unless it 1$ inappropriate to presume that the charitable company wll continue in operalion. The Iruslee5 are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy al any time the financial posthon of the charitable company and enable them lo ensure that the financial $latements comply ¥Mth the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the a$sels of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. Small company provisions This report has been prepare