March 8, 2023, marked the start of the demonstration phase of Project Greensand, shipping carbon dioxide (CO2) from Belgium for storage in a depleted oilfield in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark. This blog post highlights three ways in which this pioneering carbon capture and storage (CCS) operation […]
Adjudication typically looks backward: it runs after the facts. This is also true for human rights adjudication and the activity of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The ECtHR was built on the idea that individuals who suffered (past tense) or suffer (present tense) violations of the rights and […]
The Sabin Center today published model federal legislation to advance safe and responsible ocean carbon dioxide removal (CDR) research in U.S. waters. Controlled field trials and other in-ocean research is critical to improve scientific and societal understanding of CDR techniques that could help the U.S. reach its climate goals. However, […]
Following the 2007 landmark Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. These emissions standards were significantly loosened in the last year of the Trump Administration. In 2021 the Biden Administration […]
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund have just launched IRAtracker.org. This free online resource includes a searchable database that catalogues all of the climate change-related provisions in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as a tracker that records actions taken by federal agencies to […]
In October 2022, French environmental NGOs Notre Affaire à Tous, Les Amis de la Terre, and Oxfam France sent a notice of intent to sue BNP Paribas. Considering the answer by BNP Paribas, sent on January 24, 2023, as largely insufficient and unsatisfactory, the NGOs brought a suit before the […]
After the initial buzz that follows a winning climate change case, it can be difficult to measure its real-life impact. Many have questioned whether public interest litigation in general, and climate cases in particular, can effect meaningful and lasting change. The answer is probably “it depends.” If launched at the […]
On January 9, 2023, the Foreign Ministers of Chile and Colombia requested an advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) on the scope of state obligations for responding to the climate emergency under the frame of international human rights law and, specifically, under the American Convention on […]