Scrutinizing the Achievement of Climate Targets, Part II: Emerging Trends and Challenges in Implementation Litigation

This is the second of two posts exploring the evolution of climate change implementation litigation. Part I detailed how governments’ duties to monitor and meet their climate commitments, and have transparent and attainable climate plans, are well-defined by international, regional, and domestic courts. This post focuses on how implementation cases […]

Scrutinizing the Achievement of Climate Targets, Part I: The Widening Reach of Implementation Litigation

As temperatures continue to rise at alarming rates, it is undeniable that current climate policies are not enough to meet the 1.5°C temperature limit of the Paris Agreement. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, global warming is currently on track to reach 2.8°C above preindustrial levels by 2100. However, […]

United Nations May Soon Affirm Statehood of Island States After Sea Level Rise

  The United Nations General Assembly appears about to resolve one of the prominent legal issues caused by the sea level rise that is occurring mostly because of climate change: whether an island state that is no longer habitable because of sea level rise maintains its statehood and its UN […]

New National Academies of Sciences’ Report on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Highlights the Need for Governance Reforms

  The new Limiting Overshoot report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) paints a grim picture. Global warming is likely to exceed 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels within the next decade and could reach as high as 3.6oC by 2100. Still, UNEP is adamant that we must not give up […]

Charlotte Biren Joins the Sabin Center as Climate Justice Fellow

We welcome Charlotte Biren, who joined the Sabin Center in September 2026 as the Climate Justice Fellow. Her work will focus on evaluating environmental justice and equity considerations in climate change law and policy. Charlotte graduated from New York University School of Law in 2026, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern […]

Several Key Problems with the Forest Services’ Proposed Repeal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule

On August 20, 2026, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a proposal to repeal the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (“Roadless Rule”), which prohibits new road construction, commercial timber harvests and other activities on 58.5 million acres of undeveloped public lands. As detailed in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) […]

Widespread Local Opposition, Often Driven by Misinformation, Continues to Hamper Renewable Energy Development

Two major new reports, published today by the Sabin Center’s Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative (RELDI), highlight key challenges facing renewable energy development in the United States. The 6th edition of Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States identifies nearly 900 state laws and local ordinances that restrict […]