Yulia Yamineva

Yamineva’s primary area of expertise is climate law and governance, where she has engaged with such topics as: international climate negotiations; climate mitigation, with a focus on short-lived climate pollutants; air pollution; climate finance; climate tipping points; and science-policy interface, esp. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Her approach to research is interdisciplinary, drawing on the fields of climate and environmental law, policy and governance, and often in close collaboration with atmospheric scientists. 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). She is the co-editor of several special issues, for instance on air pollution law in RECIEL, and a book volume on the law and governance of reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, published by Brill in 2023.  Additionally, she has contributed to high-profile international reports, most recently the 2025 Global Tipping Points report, and, for over 15 years, participated in UN climate negotiations in various roles. Since 2025, she serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel under the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

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, as well as 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’