Introduction We are at a moment of profound development in understanding how international law applies to climate change. Recently issued advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and regional human rights courts have clarified country obligations, under international […]
Cross-cutting Issues
464 posts
Climate change is both a global crisis that binds humanity to a shared fate – a “common concern for humankind” – as well as the revealer of historical inequalities on the international stage, rooted in colonial legacies. Every country is vulnerable to the destabilization of the climate system and must […]
When lawsuits first began to raise climate change issues in the late 1980s, the cases were rare and experimental, with litigants testing out ways to draw on the growing body of climate science to argue for legal obligations to address “the serious and imminent threat to our environment posed by […]
As climate-related disasters intensify across the globe, the question of how to obtain redress for environmental damage has become increasingly urgent. Yet, public international law has so far struggled to provide effective remedies. The traditional framework of holding states responsible for environmental damage seems to fall short, especially in the […]
As climate litigation continues to rise, a pivotal and unresolved legal question emerges in the law of State responsibility: how to allocate responsibility for injuries that result from the cumulative conduct of multiple actors. Climate-related injury derives from the aggregate and diffuse effect of anthropogenic activities, as well as natural […]
While the impacts of climate change become increasingly challenging, states’ climate action is lagging behind. Activities and movements aiming to prompt more progressive climate actions are increasingly emerging outside of, and bypassing, climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. They include […]
This blog is the third in a three-part series on sustainable finance metrics that better evaluate corporate climate risk, opportunity, and impact, and make metrics more relevant to financial decision-making. The first two blogs analyze the value of CapEx and energy transition ratios as key transition metrics. At the […]
In recent years, roughly 30 nations have implemented regulatory regimes that mandate some type of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure from corporations. As GHG emissions disclosure regimes continue to take hold, several key questions arise: will they prompt meaningful and sustained GHG emissions reductions, or will they merely serve to […]