Climate change has major implications for the sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. Rapid and unprecedented changes in bioclimatic conditions can significantly affect the integrity, productivity, and carrying capacity of ecological systems that provide essential resources such as food, timber, and fresh water. Many natural systems are already […]
Introduction On October 23, 2025, the Judicial Tribunal of Paris (Tribunal judiciaire de Paris) found in Greenpeace France and Others v. TotalEnergies SE and TotalEnergies Electricité et Gaz France that TotalEnergies and its French subsidiary engaged in misleading environmental advertising. For the first time, a court has held a major […]
The Biden Administration tied historic federal clean energy funding in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Law (IIJA) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to a local benefits framework through the Department of Energy’s Community Benefits Plan (CBP) requirements. The Trump Administration’s rapid rescission of CBP requirements, […]
A 2024 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that over 2,500 wells and 500 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were overdue for decommissioning (i.e., the process whereby wells are permanently plugged and associated infrastructure removed). Others have estimated that over 32,000 offshore wells in U.S. waters are […]
Texas v. BlackRock (E.D. Tex.) (BlackRock), a case in which 13 states claim that the institutional-investor defendants colluded to profit through coordinated output reductions at coal companies they partially owned, remains in its early stages, with discovery continuing through 2027. Already however, opponents of climate-risk mitigation have rushed to extract […]
The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached a disappointing conclusion on Saturday. Just a few days earlier, things had looked promising. The COP President—Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago of Brazil—had proposed a draft decision recognizing the need for countries […]
Columbia Law School’s 14th Annual Sabin Colloquium on Innovative Environmental Law Scholarship will allow junior environmental law scholars to present early-stage work and receive constructive feedback from a panel of senior scholars and from each other. It will be held on Zoom on May 21-22, 2026. Eligible applicants are pre-tenure professors, […]
Today the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law published a report analyzing climate change lawsuits filed in United States courts while President Joseph R. Biden was in office. During the Biden administration, the federal government reversed course on the first Trump administration’s climate deregulation and embarked on a “whole-of-government approach […]