On February 5, a trial court in British Columbia awarded $50,000 CAD (roughly $40,000 USD in current exchange rates) to distinguished climate scientist Dr. Andrew Weaver, finding that a collection of articles had defamed him.[1] The judgment is controlling authority only within British Columbia, but it is still significant: the […]
International
309 posts
The first comprehensive survey ever conducted of climate change litigation outside the United States has been released by Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. It finds that there is far more climate litigation in the United States than in the rest of the world combined, and that […]
Mark Bond Columbia Law School, Class of 2015 In 2011, governments around the world committed to deliver a new, universal, and binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction agreement for the period beyond 2020 by 2015. This agreement is to be adopted this December at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to […]
Associate Directors Jennifer Klein and Jessica Wentz Working into the early morning on Sunday, negotiators from almost 200 nations finally reached an agreement after the two-week United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) in Lima, Peru. UN officials were scheduled to release the agreement at noon on Friday. However, the […]
Each month, Arnold & Porter and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law collect and summarize developments in climate-related litigation, which we also add to our U.S. and non-U.S. climate litigation charts. The additions to the charts from August to December 2014 are included below, organized by their case chart […]
Italian Scientists’ Convictions for Not Predicting Earthquake Reversed In the early hours of April 6, 2009, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck central Italy, with the epicenter near the medieval city of L’Aquila. The 20-second earthquake left over 300 people dead, over 1,500 injured, and over 65,000 homeless in L’Aquila and […]
Jennifer M. Klein, Esq., Associate Director & Fellow Meredith Wilensky, Esq., 2013-2014 Associate Director & Fellow During the past two days, negotiators have continued to work their way through draft text. When observing negotiations, it quickly becomes clear that the COP has its own distinct vernacular, with commonplace terms taking […]
Jennifer M. Klein, Esq., Associate Director & Fellow Meredith Wilensky, Esq., 2013-2014 Associate Director & Fellow On Day 3 of COP20, the ADP continued detailed discussions of the draft negotiating text in breakout sessions. The morning sessions addressed portions of the text by topic, including adaptation and finance. Tensions built […]