In U.S. coastal and offshore waters, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of thousands of oil and gas wells pose a growing environmental and financial liability. Of these, more than 7,300 offshore wells remain idled and await decommissioning, which could cost as much as $70 billion. Without cleanup, these […]
A plaintiff from the Global South. A carbon giant from the Global North. And a courtroom in a mid-sized German city. On May 28, 2025, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm issued its ruling in what has become Germany’s most high-profile climate lawsuit — Lliuya v. RWE. While the court […]
As of June 2025, Brazil had the third largest number of climate litigation cases of any country in the world. To date, a total of 135 climate cases have been brought in Brazil—surpassing other major jurisdictions and trailing only the United States and Australia. Remarkably, the vast majority of these […]
The Sabin Center’s newest publication, Legacy Liabilities for Oil and Gas Wells under the Mineral Leasing Act, examines the laws and regulations that allow the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) to pursue the prior owners and operators of oil and gas wells on federal land for the costs of plugging those […]
Note: The views reflected in the post are those of the author and the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sabin Center or anyone at the Sabin Center. At a colloquium co-sponsored at Columbia Law School by the Ira M. Millstein Center […]
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 […]
Last Thursday, May 22, the New York State Court of Appeals – the State’s highest court – issued a decision upholding New York City’s Local Law 97 of 2019. Local Law 97 is one of the country’s most ambitious municipal climate policies, requiring the City’s largest buildings to comply with […]
In a powerful and precedent-setting advisory opinion, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court has declared that European Union law—applicable pursuant to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement—prohibits the approval of fossil fuel projects without first assessing the global climate impacts of their emissions, including those generated when oil and […]