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 […]
UNFCCC
By Susan Biniaz In the midst of the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the U.S. Senate adopted the “Byrd-Hagel Resolution,” co-sponsored by Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Passed by a vote of 95-0, it reflected the Senate’s view that the international climate […]
By Romany Webb The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is set to begin next Monday, November 6, in the city of Bonn in western Germany. The COP will bring together representatives of 194 countries for two weeks of talks […]
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 […]
By Jessica Wentz On June 23 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a statement recognizing that the failure to take adequate action on climate change may rise to a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The Committee, a body […]
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 […]
By Michael Burger News accounts over the last few days have described an ongoing legal debate within the Trump administration over whether the United States should withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Two key questions are reportedly at the center of the debate: First, does the Paris Agreement permit the United […]
Forced Migration After Paris COP21: Evaluating the “Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility” By Phillip Dane Warren, Columbia Law Student and Former Sabin Center Intern Climate change represents, perhaps, the greatest challenge of the twenty-first century. As temperatures and sea levels rise, governments around the world will face massive and unprecedented […]