The climate crisis has necessitated a wave of bold innovation. As new climate mitigation strategies have been developed, the law has often failed to keep up. This is especially clear in the ocean, where marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) projects – techniques that use the ocean to remove and store […]
Negative Emissions
38 posts
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to “strengthen the global response to climate change” by limiting the “increase in global average temperatures to well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels,” and ideally to 1.5oC. As recognized in the Agreement, to stay within these limits, global greenhouse gas emissions […]
As global efforts to tackle climate change intensify, attention is turning to carbon dioxide removal (“CDR”)—strategies that draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for long periods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) has emphasized that CDR will be necessary, alongside deep emissions reductions, to limit global […]
The second Trump Administration’s first 100 days dealing with carbon management and negative emissions can be summed up in one word – incoherence. The administration has shown some signs of support for efforts to capture carbon dioxide at power plants and other industrial facilities and remove carbon dioxide directly from […]
Last year, for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. This follows a decade of “record-breaking temperatures,” with the World Meteorological Organization concluding that “the past ten years 2025-2024 are the ten warmest years on record.” Reversing this trend requires urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions […]
On March 4, 2025, the Supreme Court handed down an important ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency. In a 5-4 decision, the Court curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) authority under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) to issue pollutant discharge permits. The case involved […]
The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are continuing to cause rapid temperature rise. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the planet’s 10 warmest years since 1850 have occurred in the past decade. Achieving global climate goals will require rapid and dramatic greenhouse gas emissions reductions, […]
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, together with New York Sea Grant, is pleased to announce a writing competition for law students interested in writing on legal and policy issues associated with marine carbon dioxide removal. The competition is being held in connection with a […]