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Johannah Bernstein is an international environmental lawyer with law degrees from Oxford University (UK) and Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada), as well as a B.A. degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Maine (USA). She was admitted to the Bar of the Province of Ontario in 1989.
Johannah Bernstein has been engaged in multilateral environmental diplomacy since 1991, first as director of the Canadian coalition of NGOs involved in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and later on, working with several international environmental organisations (EarthAction, the Earth Council and the Stockholm Environment Institute) for which she developed advocacy and lobbying initiatives on a range of global sustainability issues in the follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit. She is also one of the founding editors of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, now considered to be the one of the most authoritative reporting sources for United Nations sustainable development negotiation processes.
Johannah Bernstein currently runs her own environmental law and policy consulting practice, based in Geneva, Brussels and Montreal. There are three related tracks to her work. The first focus involves sustainable development policy advice to national governments and international organisations. Past clients have included: the European Commission (DG Environment, DG Development); UN organisations such as UNEP, UNDP, UNITAR, the Secretariat to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, as well as the Environment and Foreign Affairs Ministries of the Governments of Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. Johannah Bernstein continues to serve as external policy advisor to the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs on a wide range of global sustainability issues and international negotiation processes.
Most recently Johannah Bernstein participated in a four-person team led by former Finnish Environment Minister Pekka Haavisto, which carried out the first external evaluation of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). This work was used as the substantive groundwork for negotiations between UNECE member states on the reform of that body. Currently, Johannah Bernstein is leading the work of the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC), a coalition of 80 national governments, in developing an effective review arrangement to assess the global market share of renewable energy. This proposal is now being taken up for consideration by the UN Commission for Sustainable Development at its spring 2007 session. As well, she has just completed a draft Environmental Security Strategy for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will be negotiated and eventually adopted by OSCE participating States in late 2007.
A second focus of Johannah Bernstein’s work involves university teaching as well as negotiation training for environmental diplomats. Since 1992, she has been a visiting lecturer on international law, global governance and multilateral negotiations at a number of academic institutions, including Columbia University (Biosphere 2 Campus), Duke University (Stanford School of Public Policy), the University of California at Santa Barbara (Bren School of Environmental Management), Joensuu University (Finland), and McGill University (International Development Studies Programme). As well, Johannah Bernstein has developed and led UN environmental negotiation training programmes for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), LEAD International, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
A third focus of Johannah Bernstein’s work involves the development of sustainability policy and advocacy initiatives, as well as the organisation and facilitation of expert policy dialogues for NGOs such as the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Stockholm Environment Institute, WWF-European Policy Office, the Worldwatch Institute, the Institute for Environmental Security and Green Cross International. Johannah Bernstein also played an active role in the drafting of the Earth Charter (a declaration of ethical principles for sustainable development, formerly recognised by UNESCO at its 2003 General Conference), working directly for Professor Steven C. Rockefeller (in his capacity as Chair of the Earth Charter Drafting Committee and member of the Earth Charter Commission). Johannah Bernstein also currently works with the University of Cambridge’s Programme for Industry (CPI), which runs the Prince of Wales Business and Environment Programme. She is now currently designing a number of new sustainability leadership programmes for the CPI.
When not pursuing the cause of sustainable development, Johannah is most likely to be found skiing at high altitudes, sailing or kayaking the “high and low seas”, and playing her ‘cello as an amateur, but devoted string quartet enthusiast.