Climate Law Blog

By Hillary Aidun and Daniel Metzger Americans of all walks of life are working together to slow the spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing. Public agencies are doing their part by closing offices to the public, canceling or postponing hearings, and shifting services and proceedings to virtual formats. In this post we look at […]

by Amy Turner It is an extremely challenging time for cities. With the novel coronavirus COVID-19 infiltrating cities across the U.S., leaders and staff are working around the clock to develop and implement policies aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, adequately caring for those infected, providing a basic level of services to residents […]

By Hillary Aidun and Malia Libby On January 17, 2020, the Ninth Circuit released its long-awaited opinion in Juliana v. United States. By a 2-1 vote, the panel declined to act on children’s claim that the U.S. government had violated their constitutional rights, including a right to “a climate system capable of sustaining human life,” […]

By Margaret Barry and Hillary Aidun Each month, Arnold & Porter 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@gmail.com. HERE ARE THE ADDITIONS TO THE CLIMATE CASE CHART SINCE UPDATE […]

By Daniel Metzger and Hillary Aidun Major Developments in International Climate Litigation in Early 2020 The first two months of 2020 saw a significant number of notable developments in climate change litigation. Building on the recent Urgenda ruling, rights-based litigation is expanding, although recent decisions suggest that such lawsuits yield mixed results. Plaintiffs are also […]

By Susan Biniaz*, A new Administration will invariably seek to restore U.S. leadership on climate change through a wide range of domestic and international initiatives.  These will include rejoining the 2015 Paris Agreement, from which the United States is set to exit on November 4th of this year.  While rejoining Paris per se will be straightforward, […]

By Lauren Kurtz This week the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) officially launched a series of guides to scientific integrity at nine federal agencies. The guides are intended to help researchers understand their employers’ policies and navigate the process of filing a scientific integrity complaint. They also reveal which agencies have strong policies and […]