Cross-cutting Issues

470 posts

Cities: EPA Request for Information on Green Banks Established by the Inflation Reduction Act

By Amy Turner On October 21, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) released a request for information (RFI) regarding Section 60103 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), also known as the IRA’s “green bank” provisions. These provisions add a new section 134 to the Clean Air Act establishing a […]

Guest Commentary: An Unexpected Success for Czech Climate Litigation

Introduction On June 15, 2022, the Prague Municipal Court, a first instance administrative court, decided in favor of the plaintiffs in the first Czech strategic climate case (Klimatická žaloba ČR v. Czech Republic) and ordered the Czech Republic’s ministries to take specific measures to reach a 55% GHG emissions reduction […]

U.N. Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction

United Nations Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction By Maria Antonia Tigre   On September 23, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) delivered a landmark decision in Daniel Billy and others v Australia (Torres Strait Islanders […]

Guest Commentary: Legal action in the UK in a time of climate crisis

Guest Commentary: Legal action in a time of climate crisis By Katie de Kauwe and Millie John-Pierre* On July 18, 2022, one of the hottest days on record in the UK, an equally ground-breaking judgment was handed down by the High Court of England and Wales in R (Friends of […]

The Sabin Center Publishes White Paper on the Role of Climate Science in Adaptation Litigation in the U.S.

By Jacob Elkin While the most prominent climate litigation to date has primarily focused on mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—adaptation litigation will also increase as climate impacts become more frequent, extreme, and intense. Adaptation cases frequently rely on evidence drawn from scientific research into past and future climate change. In a […]

Cities & the Inflation Reduction Act

By Amy Turner On August 16, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (or “IRA”), widely hailed as the most ambitious piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. The bill is sprawling, covering climate and energy topics as diverse as electric vehicles, building decarbonization, clean energy manufacturing and supply chains, […]

Removing Carbon Dioxide Through Ocean Fertilization: Legal Challenges and Opportunities

By Korey Silverman-Roati Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be needed, alongside deep emissions cuts, to achieve global temperature goals. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasized that, to limit warming to 1.5oC or 2oc, in line with the Paris Agreement, global carbon dioxide emissions must reach net-zero between […]

Guest Commentary: A new frontier in (Dutch) climate litigation: Greenwashing advertisements on CO2 compensation

By Marlies Hesselman* The first week of July 2022 brought on several major developments in climate litigation in the Netherlands, with possibly significant ramifications for a new type of global climate litigation. After landmark decisions in Urgenda and Shell, plaintiffs are asking a Dutch court to weigh in on a […]