On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) published its long-awaited Advisory Opinion 32/25 (AO-32/25). The Opinion responds to a 2023 request from Colombia and Chile, asking the IACtHR to clarify the scope of States’ obligations to address the climate emergency under international human rights law. While […]
International
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A Historic Advisory Opinion On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued Advisory Opinion No. 32—the most important and progressive document yet released by an international court on the climate crisis. In this landmark ruling (still only available in Spanish, with official English and Portuguese translations […]
As the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) prepares to release its advisory opinion on climate change on July 3, 2025—joining earlier decisions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and in anticipation of the International Court of […]
Lithium has become a cornerstone of the global energy transition, powering technologies central to decarbonization efforts, such as electric vehicle batteries and large-scale renewable energy storage. As demand for this critical mineral accelerates, mining activity has intensified across the so-called “lithium triangle” – Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile – a region […]
Planning law has proven to be a useful tool for climate activists seeking to block or challenge new fossil fuel developments. However, it has also been used to frustrate efforts to accelerate the renewable energy transition by delaying the construction of new renewable energy infrastructure (see here). Ireland has been […]
Introduction It was forty-three degrees Celsius or 109.4 Fahrenheit in Dhaka, Bangladesh on a hot April day and the tin homes of the community members in the informal settlement of Khorail were steadily accumulating heat. Arpitha Kodiveri was there with a group of other climate lawyers trying to understand what […]
This blog post was authored by 2024 Sabin Center Summer Intern, Arpana Giritharan, with input and supervision from Johanna Lovecchio, Director of Program Design for Climate Action and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Climate School, and Romany Webb, Deputy Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. ‘Coastal blue carbon’ […]
The next week has the potential to bring important developments for international governance of marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR). That’s because the parties to the London Convention and London Protocol are meeting from October 28 to November 1 in London to discuss, among other things, governance of ocean alkalinity enhancement […]