In September 2015, then Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave a landmark speech on the “Tragedy of the Horizon.” The concept was simple: climate change creates tremendous risk for financial markets, but these mounting risks are ignored by investors due to the market’s tendency towards myopia. The speech marked […]
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is inviting all U.N. Member States to submit their views on the legal issues relevant to climate duties and obligations. To help States make these submissions, Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has just released its Status Report on Principles of […]
The advisory opinion request to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on State Parties’ obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, Convention) to prevent, reduce, and control pollution of the marine environment from climate change, and to protect and preserve […]
While progress is being made, there is still a lot to do. The IPCC has said that, in addition to reducing emissions, it will likely also be necessary to draw greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere to mitigate climate change. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, an affiliate of the Columbia Climate School, has been exploring various ways of doing that, including through “blue carbon” approaches. Blue carbon is carbon captured by ocean and coastal ecosystems. In this post, we will focus specifically on ocean-based carbon dioxide removal and sequestration, also known as “ocean CDR”.
On Monday, April 17, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down a decision in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley. The court overturned a District Court ruling to invalidate a Berkeley, California, prohibition on natural gas infrastructure in newly-constructed buildings. Berkeley’s so-called “natural gas […]
On December 12, 2022, the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) requested the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) issue an advisory opinion on the State Parties’ obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to […]
A major bottleneck in the deployment of renewable energy systems is the lack of adequate transmission capacity. According to recent studies cited by the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States will “need to expand transmission systems by 60% by 2030 and may need to triple those systems by 2050” […]
In January, the first case to enforce the requirements of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) was filed in the state Supreme Court. Enacted in 2019, the CLCPA sets ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals for the State of New York, while incorporating principles of environmental justice. […]