Climate Law Blog

By Susan Biniaz In the midst of the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the U.S. Senate adopted the “Byrd-Hagel Resolution,” co-sponsored by Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Passed by a vote of 95-0, it reflected the Senate’s view that the international climate change agreement then being negotiated […]

By Jessica Wentz and Michael Burger Last year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a key decision on the scope of greenhouse gas emission impacts that must be considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in environmental reviews of pipeline projects. In Sierra Club v. FERC, No. 16-1329 (2017), the court held that […]

Editor’s Note The Expert Group on Climate Obligations of Enterprises is comprised of experts, listed here,  in international, environmental, tort, human rights and company law. It has worked for several years to formulate the Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises, based on its interpretation of the law as it stands or will likely develop. It […]

By Romany Webb Just a year into his term, President Trump has already gained a reputation for being staunchly anti-science, with his administration recently described as showing “greater distain for science” than any other in modern history. Every day, it seems, there is a new report of the administration reducing public access to scientific information, […]

We are pleased to announce that Susan Biniaz and Jose Felix Pinto-Bazurco are joining the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law as David Sive Visiting Scholars. Susan Biniaz is currently a Senior Fellow at the UN Foundation and an Associate Researcher at the French think tank IDDRI.  She was a State Department lawyer from 1984 to early 2017.  […]

By Emmalina Glinskis I am a recent graduate from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Science (CC ’17) currently working as a field scientist and technician at the U.S. Antarctic Program at Palmer Station. I am helping out Dr. Hugh Ducklow from the Earth & Environmental Sciences department at Columbia studying the microbial communities […]

  The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law posted its Summer/Fall 2017 Semi-Annual Report, which includes a summary of the Center’s key activities between June and December 2017. It is available for download here. Below are some key highlights from the report: The Center in collaboration with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP launched a […]

Each month, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP (APKS) and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law collect and summarize developments in climate-related litigation, which we also add to our U.S. and non-U.S. climate litigation charts.  If you know of any cases we have missed, please email us at columbiaclimate at gmail dot com. HERE ARE THE ADDITIONS TO […]

By Jessica Wentz On December 20, the City of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County filed separate lawsuits in California Superior Court seeking to hold 29 fossil fuel companies accountable for their contribution to climate change. In doing so, they joined five other Californian local governments that have filed similar lawsuits in the past year. […]