Rapid data center development is challenging local governments’ ability to manage the environmental challenges these facilities raise. Cities, towns, and counties are facing both uncertainty about the scope of those impacts and growing opposition to data centers from residents. In response, many are turning to temporary moratoria to pause data […]
Cross-cutting Issues
504 posts
Climate advocates may hope to see dramatic commercial breakthroughs over the next several decades that reshape emissions-intensive components of our everyday lives, such as our dietary choices, household energy use, and transportation habits. Yet transforming these consumer sectors will require not only scientific ingenuity and entrepreneurial ambition, but also nimble […]
Nick Scott, Harj Narulla, Nicholas Young, Michael Burger, Harro van Asselt, Jessica Wentz and Maria Antonia Tigre In May, the High Court of Australia (HCA) will hear MACH Energy Australia v Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group & Anor (“Denman”), the first climate case to reach Australia’s apex court. […]
Earlier this week, on April 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts enjoined five secretarial orders issued by the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) and U.S. Army Corps (“USACE”) that collectively imposed sweeping constraints on wind and solar development across the United States. The Sabin Center’s […]
Introduction As a British judge with a special interest in environmental law, I have over the last two decades taken a particular interest in the developing role of the courts across the world in response to the challenges of climate change. In this article I shall look back at my […]
On May 2, 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) received a formal petition requesting an advisory opinion on the human rights obligations of African States in relation to the climate change crisis. The petition before the AfCHPR details a continent already experiencing widespread and severe impacts […]
The number of climate change lawsuits brought before domestic, regional, and international courts is growing at an unprecedented pace, with courts increasingly being asked to hold governments and corporations accountable for the harms associated with our warming planet. Most of the focus in the scholarship so far has been on whether such […]
The number of court decisions upholding building decarbonization laws against federal preemption challenges is growing. After the Ninth Circuit’s decision in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley (Berkeley), building decarbonization laws effectively prohibiting fossil-fuel appliances covered by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) appeared to be […]