The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law posted its Winter/Spring 2021 Semi-Annual Report, which includes a summary of the Center’s key activities between January and May 2021.
It is available for download here. 
Below are some highlights from the report:
- With the Biden-Harris administration in office since January 2021, the Sabin Center’s work has shifted once again from a focus on COVID-19 and the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda to the renewed federal government commitment to climate action and ongoing climate developments at the state and local level, in the private sector, and in the courts.
- The Center will become an affiliate of the new Columbia Climate School. Faculty director Michael Gerrard has been deeply involved in the planning for the new school.
- The Center launched the Climate Reregulation Tracker to follow the Biden administration’s progress reinstating and expanding on climate policies that had been rolled back under the previous administration.
- The Center is cataloguing the new administration’s efforts to undo the Trump administration’s anti-science actions, as well as tracking anti-science actions at the state and local levels through our Silencing Science Tracker.
- The Center continues to maintain the Model Laws for Deep Decarbonization in the United States website, providing legal tools needed to transition away from fossil fuels. We are currently cooperating with legal scholars in Brazil and Australia who are undertaking similar projects in those countries.
- The Cities Climate Law Initiative’s senior fellow Amy Turner worked with several cities on legal questions relating to building decarbonization, natural gas transition issues and decarbonization of for-hire and delivery vehicles.
- The Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative (RELDI) continues to represent community groups and local residents who support renewable energy development in their communities including New York’ first offshore wind farm and a New York-based solar facility.
- The Center submitted comments and briefs to numerous agencies, including FERC, EPA, and NYPSC.
- The Center sponsored/co-sponsored numerous virtual events and conference.
- Executive director Michael Burger and climate law fellow Hillary Aidun received an Amicus Service Award from the International Municipal Lawyers Association.
- Two Center papers were selected for inclusion in the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review top 20 articles list.
- The Center published books and articles on a variety of topics. These include, among others:
The UNEP Global Climate Litigation Report: 2020 Status Review, co-authored by Michael Burger and Daniel Metzger.
Removing Carbon Dioxide Through Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement and Seaweed Cultivation: Legal Challenges and Opportunitiesby Romany M. Webb, Korey Silverman-Roati and Michael B. Gerrard, February 2, 2021.
The Legal Framework for Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage in Canada, by Romany M. Webb and Michael B. Gerrard, February 10, 2021.
Migrants Can Make International Law, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Ama Francis, February 2021.
Principles of International Law and the Adoption of a Market-Based Mechanism for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Shipping, by Hillary Aidun, Daniel Metzger and Michael B. Gerrard, February 27, 2021.
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s Environmental Justice Promise, by Hillary Aidun, Julia Li, and Antonia Pereira, April 2021.
Biden’s First 100 Days: Where he stands on science, op-ed by Romany Webb and Lauren Kurtz, The Hill, April 29, 2021.
To learn more about our work, our Climate Law Blog, and numerous media and news items in which Michael Gerrard, Michael Burger and Sabin Center fellows were interviewed, quoted or mentioned, read the report here.
Tiffany is the Communications Associate at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
