Cross-cutting Issues

319 posts

Understanding Unsuccessful Climate Litigation: The Spanish Greenpeace Case

On June 20, 2023, the Spanish Supreme Court handed down its final ruling in the case of Greenpeace v. Spain II, widely known as the trial for climate (“el juicio por el clima”). The decision, formally communicated to the parties on July 27, marks a pivotal moment in climate litigation. […]

Photo of Offshore Oil and Gas Facility

Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Face of Climate Change and the Energy Transition

On August 31, 2023, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), as part of their broader Climate Law and Finance Initiative, published two reports analyzing legal and contractual regimes governing decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure projects and identifying decommissioning-related risks […]

New York Cap and Invest should think twice before linking to the Western Climate Initiative

    In January, when Governor Kathy Hochul announced the creation of New York Cap and Invest–a regulatory program through which the state will set a continuously-decreasing cap on economy-wide emissions and issue emission credits in accordance with this cap– she touted the program’s potential for linkage with cap-and-trade programs […]

New California Legislation Would Be a Major Step Forward for Climate Disclosure

This piece previously appeared in the CLS Blue Sky Blog. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulations on climate disclosure, first proposed in March 2022 and likely to be issued in final form in October 2023,[1] have drawn considerable controversy and face an uncertain fate in the inevitable litigation.[2] Much less attention has […]

New Report Highlights the Complex Intersection of Antitrust Law and Sustainability Goals

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment have released a new report: Antitrust and Sustainability: A Landscape Analysis. The report gives an overview of the broad purview of antitrust law, and the myriad and complex ways in which it intersects with and affects […]

The Willow Project Heads to Court: Sabin Center Files Amicus Brief in Support of Plaintiffs Challenging BLM’s Approval of the Project

Last Wednesday, July 26, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Center for Biological Diversity v. BLM – two lawsuits challenging BLM’s approval of the so-called “Willow Project” on the North […]

Model Environmental Justice Bills Released by WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Sabin Center

In an effort to advance environmental justice solutions across the United States, the Sabin Center has partnered with WE ACT for Environmental Justice to launch a suite of model state environmental justice bills for legislators and advocates to introduce and adopt in their state’s 2024 legislative sessions.

The Status of Global Climate Litigation: Tracking the Evolution of Legal Action

As the frequency and number of climate change cases continue to rise, a robust body of legal precedent is forming, shaping a well-defined field of climate law. Today, the United Nations Environment Programme (“UNEP”), with support from the Sabin Center, has published a survey of global climate change litigation that […]