Climate Change

26 posts

Photo of Offshore Oil and Gas Facility

Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Face of Climate Change and the Energy Transition

On August 31, 2023, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), as part of their broader Climate Law and Finance Initiative, published two reports analyzing legal and contractual regimes governing decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure projects and identifying decommissioning-related risks […]

New York Cap and Invest should think twice before linking to the Western Climate Initiative

    In January, when Governor Kathy Hochul announced the creation of New York Cap and Invest–a regulatory program through which the state will set a continuously-decreasing cap on economy-wide emissions and issue emission credits in accordance with this cap– she touted the program’s potential for linkage with cap-and-trade programs […]

Elsberry, MO, June 20, 2008 -- A levee in the Elsberry levee district breaks, flooding farmland and houses in the area. Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA

A Climate Adaptation Toolkit for the Insurance Industry

On July 21, 2023, the Sabin Center launched its latest report, Modelling Climate Litigation Risk for (Re)Insurers. This report, which forms part of the Sabin Center’s broader Climate Law and Finance Initiative, provides a toolkit to help academics, attorneys, insurance practitioners, and industry regulators model (re)insurer climate litigation risk. Insurance […]

Japanese Courts Admit the Operation of New Coal-Fired Power Plants in Kobe

In March 2023, two important decisions regarding the operation of newly built coal-fired power plants were handed down by courts in Japan. On March 9, 2023, the Japanese Supreme Court refused to hear the first climate change litigation brought before it without specifying substantive reasons. (Citizens’ Committee on the Kobe […]

Beyond troubled waters? Unprecedented cross-border transportation and injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) for offshore storage shows promise

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 […]

Sabin Center Files Amicus Brief in Support of New GHG Vehicle Emissions Standards

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 […]

Sabin Center Urges BOEM to Consider Climate Change Risks to Offshore Wind Projects, as Well as Climate Change Impacts to Wildlife if Offshore Wind Projects Are Not Constructed

In March 2021, the Biden Administration announced a target of deploying 30,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030, enough energy to power approximately 10 million homes. As of May 31, 2022, only 42 MW of offshore wind capacity was in operation, less than 1% of the Administration’s 30,000-MW […]

Back in the game: Brazil’s reengagement in climate governance

  To say that Brazilians are an environmentally conscious people (and soccer afficionados) is an understatement. The country has an established reputation in both fields. Brazil is the most successful international team in World Cup history. Perhaps less excitingly, but more consequentially, Brazil also has a long tradition of progressive […]