Publications

9 posts

Removing Carbon Dioxide Through Artificial Upwelling and Downwelling: Legal Challenges and Opportunities

  In a report published last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that, to keep global average temperatures within 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels, greenhouse gas emissions must reach net zero by mid-century. According to the IPCC, to achieve net zero emissions, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be […]

New Sabin Center White Paper Assesses the New York State Executive Branch’s Authority to Enact a Moratorium on the Permitting of Consolidated Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities

By Jacob Elkin As cryptocurrency has increased in popularity and cryptocurrency mining facilities have expanded their energy consumption, some fossil fuel power plants in New York have ramped up energy generation to provide behind-the-meter power to cryptocurrency miners. Increased power generation to fuel cryptocurrency mining has significant environmental impacts, leading […]

Using Smart Surfaces to Reduce Heat and Promote Equity in Urban Areas: New Sabin Center White Paper

The summer of 2021 underscored that we are all affected by climate change impacts, whether in the form of heatwaves, fires, or extreme flooding. But some Americans are more affected than others. Urban centers are hotter than rural areas due to urban heat island effect, a phenomenon caused by pavement, […]

Attribution Science in Takings Litigation: A New White Paper

  As with almost all climate litigation, science plays a central role in climate cases brought under the Takings Clause of the United States’ and many state constitutions. The cases filed to date have involved claims that challenge the constitutionality of both adaptation and mitigation measures. For instance, real estate […]

Trump Administration’s Efforts to Roll Back Climate Protections Haven’t Gotten Far and May Not Last, New Report Reveals

The Trump administration has undertaken a sweeping portfolio of actions aimed at weakening federal climate protections and promoting the development and use of fossil fuels. A new report from Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law takes a critical look at what this effort has actually accomplished. It […]

Should the Government Impose a Climate Change Impacts Fee on Federal Coal Leases? New Working Paper Presents the Legal and Policy Rationales for This Measure

In a new working paper, Executive Director Michael Burger presents a “Mitigation-Based Rationale for Incorporating a Climate Change Impacts Fee into the Federal Coal Leasing Program.” The paper makes several key points about the rationale for introducing such a fee, most notably, that the federal government has a duty to […]

UNEP Publishes Report on the Link between Climate Change and Human Rights

Michael Burger, Executive Director Jessica Wentz, Associate Director and Fellow Today, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published a report that we co-authored on Climate Change and Human Rights, with forewords from UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and John Knox, the Independent Expert on Human Rights and Environment. The release […]