Yulia Yamineva

Yamineva’s primary area of expertise is climate law and governance, where she has engaged mainly with the international level, as well as with the EU and selected countries in Europe and Asia.

Her approach to research is interdisciplinary, drawing on the fields of climate and environmental law, policy and governance, and is often conducted in close collaboration with climate modellers. Yamineva has published in leading interdisciplinary and disciplinary journals, including Nature Climate Change, Earth Systems Governance, Transnational Environmental Law, and Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL). For over 15 years, she has also participated in UN climate negotiations in various roles.

Her research focuses on two themes. The first concerns climate mitigation, including short-lived climate pollutants (methane, black carbon) and linkages to air pollution policies. Currently, Yamineva leads a ClimAirPathways project consortium with the Finnish Meteorological Institute to develop science-based legal pathways for reducing black carbon emissions. The legal WP focuses on evaluating the integration of climate and air quality policies across the EU and China in a multilevel context.  Within the same theme, she has co-edited a book volume on the law and governance of reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and a special issue on air pollution law in RECIEL. Since 2025, she has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the UNEP Climate and Clean Air Coalition and has contributed to the Coalition’s assessment activities.

The second theme concerns science and risk in climate law. She has published widely on the design and role of science-policy interfaces, especially the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Her recent interest concerns climate tipping risks and how to accommodate them in international climate and environmental law. She has contributed to several international reports, including the 2025 Global Tipping Points report as a lead author for the governance chapter sections. Additionally, Yamineva maintains a strong interest in climate and sustainable finance law.

At the UEF Law School, Yamineva is the Co-Director of the Master’s Degree Programme in Environmental Policy and Law, overseeing its climate law specialisation, and the Director of the UEF-UNEP Course on Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

Prior to academia, she worked for the UN Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin. She holds PhD in International Studies and MPhil in Environmental Policy, both from the University of Cambridge.

Current projects:

Principal investigator of the project consortium with the Finnish Meteorological Institute ‘ClimAirPathways: Science-based legal pathways to reduce black carbon emissions in the EU and China: Towards integrated climate – air quality approaches’ (Research Council of Finland, 2023-2027)

Co-PI, climate law package, Atmosphere and Climate Competence Centre (Research Council of Finland flagship, 2020-2028)

Current PhD students:

1. Raihanatul Jannat ‘Building climate-resilient development of women in Bangladesh through adaptation law’
2. Saga Eriksson ‘EU sustainable finance legislation: Towards creation of green markets and agency?’
3. Camille Bertaux ‘WHO guidelines & environmental law in a moving context – from mere reference to conclusive influence?’, UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles, Centre for Environmental Law (Member of the supervisory committee)
4. Katri Varis ‘Role of scientific advisory bodies in EU climate law and policy’
5. Niklas Löther ‘From fragmentation to integration in legal responses to climate change and air pollution: A transnational investigation of pathways and obstacles to integrated environmental lawmaking in the European Union’
6. Eveliina Laine ‘Climate adaptation finance: From international rules to impact’
7. Vivien Reh ‘Science and climate change law: The role of climate tipping point science in the international legal framework applicable to climate change’