by Bradford McCormick On March 15, 2010, ASTM International approved its Standard Guide for Financial Disclosures Attributed to Climate Change (“ASTM Guide”). The ASTM Guide was released a little over one month after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its final Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change (“SEC Guidance”), […]
Led by Ireland’s nation-wide tax on single-use plastic bags implemented in 2002, which lowered the use of plastic bags by more than 90%, several large American municipalities have implemented similar regulations on single-use bags distributed by retail outlets. These regulations seek to reduce waste and, often, generate revenue. The first […]
By Elisa Botero* Colombia is the number one cocaine producer in the world. Hundreds of hectares of coca bush, the main component of cocaine, are planted each year to produce this popular recreational drug, consumed mainly in Europe and North America. The local social, economic and environmental impacts of illicit drug production have been […]
By Marne Sussman Recently passed legislation in New York State authorizes municipalities to create a PACE, or property assessed clean energy, program using federal grant assistance or federal credit support. In a PACE program a municipality sets up a special clean energy finance district capable of issuing low-interest bonds. Homeowners […]
by Hannah Chang As comprehensive climate legislation stagnates in Congress, the possibility of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) regulation under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) existing Clean Air Act (“the Act”) authority as the sole federal means of addressing climate change becomes increasingly likely. Whether EPA has existing authority to implement a […]
By Hannah Chang The term “legally binding” has become a touchstone of sorts in international climate policy. The Copenhagen Accord taken note of by the fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP) under the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2009 is not legally binding. Heads of state and […]
My last blog was written shortly after midnight on Thursday. Here are my observations concerning Friday and Saturday. Friday was a day of high drama and muddled results. As the workday began (and many committees were continuing their sleepless drafting, amid a backdrop of radically fluctuating expectations that by turns […]
As I write this a little after midnight on Thursday, less than 24 hours remain before the nominal close of the Copenhagen talks. And local television is playing continuous loops of an English-language TV movie (with Danish subtitles) about an evil oil company that is trying to sabotage the “Kyoto […]