Climate Law Blog

Governmental officials, concerned citizens, and experts will gather this week to mobilize climate action during the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit and Climate Week NYC.  Millions around the world are expected to demand urgent action ahead of these events  in climate strikes inspired by Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg. As conversations unfold on […]

By Michael B. Gerrard Despite the Paris Climate Agreement, the seas will continue to rise, coastlines around the world will recede, and many low-lying islands will disappear. This could cause the exclusive economic zones of the small island states to shrink or disappear if international law allows maritime boundaries to move.  This note argues that, […]

By Susan Biniaz* In Katowice, Poland, the Parties to the Paris Agreement just adopted the so-called “Paris rulebook,” i.e., the various guidelines and procedures that put meat on the bones of the Agreement’s provisions.  The outcome on “transparency,” which sets forth extensive reporting requirements and review processes, is particularly noteworthy.  It is designed, among other […]

By Ama Francis After delays and closed-door dealings, this Saturday marked the conclusion of Conference of the Parties Twenty-Four (COP24), the annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP24 set in motion the momentous Paris Agreement, wherein 196 countries agreed to keep  global average temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels while […]

By Ama Francis After years of struggling to identify and address the needs of people compelled to move in the context of climate change, the international community is poised to affirmatively recognize the relevance of climate-induced migration and displacement.* Over the next week, world leaders are gathering in Marrakech, Morocco to adopt the Global Compact […]

By Dena Adler It has been a busy few weeks in global climate change litigation. Even as world leaders gather in Poland this week to continue writing the rulebook for the Paris Agreement, countries are already being sued for their failure to deliver climate action. Here is a snapshot of a few key legal developments, […]

By Dena Adler Thousands of country delegates, NGO representatives, citizens, researchers, and members of the private sector converged in Bonn, Germany for two weeks of meetings to advance global climate change negotiations, ending on May 10. While the annual international climate summit, called the Conference of the Parties or “COP,” attracts greater media attention, “intersessionals” […]

By Romany Webb and Jessica Wentz The latest round of United Nations (UN) climate change talks got underway yesterday – April 30 – at the seat of the secretariat to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Germany. The so-called “intersessional” talks, which take place each year midway between the annual Conference of […]

By Susan Biniaz (Susan Biniaz is a former Deputy Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, as well as the Department’s lead climate lawyer from 1989 through early 2017. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the UN Foundation and on the adjunct faculty at Columbia and Yale Law Schools.) On August 4th, the […]

By Mike Burger & Justin Gundlach Today, the Sabin Center and UN Environment have officially launched The Status of Climate Change Litigation – A Global Review. The report offers a (relatively) concise survey of decided and ongoing cases, an overview of salient trends, and descriptions of key issues that courts must resolve in the course […]