Tim Wang, Sabin Center Intern Total S.A., the fourth largest oil and gas producer worldwide, has published a comprehensive plan explaining how the company intends to alter its business practices and energy holdings in order to be consistent with the International Energy Agency’s 2°C Scenario in the next twenty years. […]
The Columbia Environmental Law Clinic wins a critically important case involving the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts. Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court released a unanimous decision ordering the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to take additional measures to implement the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act. Specifically, […]
New York’s 2014 Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA) instructs the Department of State and the Department of Environmental Conservation to create model local laws that local governments can use in developing and implementing climate change adaptation policies related to sea level rise and flood risk. The Sabin Center’s new […]
Justin Gundlach Climate Law Fellow In an opinion issued on May 11, 2016, a two-judge panel of India’s Supreme Court chastised that country’s federal and regional governments for their recent responses to severe droughts, which the Court said contravene key provisions of the National Disaster Mitigation Act of 2005 (DM […]
In recent months, there has been a growing succession of actual and proposed investigations into fossil fuel companies, and their purported collaborators, over whether these groups lied to the public or investors about the risks of climate change. The investigations come amid a series of reports that the fossil fuel […]
By Jessica Wentz and Michael Burger The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has proposed a leasing program to continue oil and gas production on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for the next five years. BOEM estimates that the program could result in the production of up to 13,139 million […]
by David Markell David Sive Visiting Scholar, fall 2016 The legal environment for local government in Florida is beginning to change when it comes to sea-level rise (sometimes referred to as SLR). Innovations in institutional structure and governance strategies are underway in the State as well. This paper, Sea-Level Rise […]
by Michael Gerrard, Faculty Director Yesterday Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the U.S. District Court of Oregon recommended denial of motions to dismiss a suit brought by a group of young people who alleged that excessive carbon emissions are threatening their future. The plaintiffs also include Dr. James Hansen, who […]