Siting Renewables in New York: Updates from ORES Executive Director Houtan Moaveni and Suggestions from Panelists on How to Further Improve the New Siting Process

On September 22, 2022, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School co-hosted a Climate Week NYC webinar on “Siting Renewables in New York: Ambitious Climate Goals, a New Siting Process, and How It Is Going.” This blog post will summarize the highlights of the event, […]

Guest Commentary: An Unexpected Success for Czech Climate Litigation

Introduction On June 15, 2022, the Prague Municipal Court, a first instance administrative court, decided in favor of the plaintiffs in the first Czech strategic climate case (Klimatická žaloba ČR v. Czech Republic) and ordered the Czech Republic’s ministries to take specific measures to reach a 55% GHG emissions reduction […]

The Role of Human Rights Institutions In Tackling Climate Change: A Case Study of the Philippines

Introduction Earlier this year, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines released its final report detailing the findings of a groundbreaking inquiry (In re Greenpeace Southeast Asia and Others) into the responsibility of “Carbon Majors”—large global fossil fuel and cement companies—for the adverse effects of climate change on human […]

U.N. Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction

United Nations Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction By Maria Antonia Tigre   On September 23, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) delivered a landmark decision in Daniel Billy and others v Australia (Torres Strait Islanders […]

Guest Commentary: Legal action in the UK in a time of climate crisis

Guest Commentary: Legal action in a time of climate crisis By Katie de Kauwe and Millie John-Pierre* On July 18, 2022, one of the hottest days on record in the UK, an equally ground-breaking judgment was handed down by the High Court of England and Wales in R (Friends of […]

STAFF NEWS: FIVE FELLOWS JOIN THE SABIN CENTER

This month, Carolina Arlota joins us as an Associate Research Scholar. Her work explores international and domestic (U.S.) laws governing the cross-border transport of carbon dioxide (CO2) for sequestration, and how such transportation fits into broader climate and environmental protection regimes, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, carbon markets […]

The Sabin Center Publishes White Paper on the Role of Climate Science in Adaptation Litigation in the U.S.

By Jacob Elkin While the most prominent climate litigation to date has primarily focused on mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—adaptation litigation will also increase as climate impacts become more frequent, extreme, and intense. Adaptation cases frequently rely on evidence drawn from scientific research into past and future climate change. In a […]