Law Commons^™

Introduction, Gabriella Mickel, Samantha Blend

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ancestral Comprehensions For A Policy For The Future Of The Earth: The Narrative Of The South American Andes In The Face Of The Global Climate Crisis, Erick Pajares G., Eduardo Calvo B., Jorge Iván Palacio P., Juan José Munar M., Carlos Loret De Mola, Darío Espinoza M., Yuri Godoy P., Gustavo Mora R.

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Addressing Correlations Between Gender-Based Violence And Climate Change: An Expanded Role For International Climate Change Law And Education For Sustainable Development, Achinthi C. Vithanage

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Carbon Storage Future Of Public Lands, Tara Righetti, Jesse Richardson, Kris Koski, Sam Taylor

Pace Environmental Law Review

To meet the climate and energy goals set forth by the Biden Administration and the Paris Agreement, the United States must dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Use of public lands for carbon dioxide removal activities, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), has the potential to advance carbon reduction goals and concurrently provide economic revitalization opportunities to communities dependent on fossil industries. Current federal law presents numerous challenges and opportunities associated with utilization of federal pore space for CCUS. Although federal grant programs and tax incentives encourage deployment of CCUS technologies, legal and land-management issues related to public lands have received …

The Fossil Fuel Industry’S Push To Target Climate Protesters In The U.S., Grace Nosek

Pace Environmental Law Review

At the very moment when the United Nations has called for profound shifts in social and economic systems to avert climate catastrophe, state and non-state actors in the United States (U.S.) are using a series of tactics to target and stifle climate protesters. Although the move to stifle climate protesters is often framed as a government effort, this Article argues it is critical to draw out the role of the fossil fuel industry in initiating, amplifying, and supporting such tactics.

This Article highlights the role the fossil fuel industry has played in supporting the targeting and restricting of climate protesters …

Law, Cultural Heritage, And Climate Change In The United States, Casey J. Snyder

Pace Environmental Law Review

Climate change is a reality. What happens climatically over the upcoming centuries is partially dependent on the comprehensiveness of a global response to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. However, within a century, forecasts predict a one-meter sea level rise that could have grave implications to our society: the loss of an incalculable extent of cultural heritage. This Article examines the threat climate change poses to physical cultural heritage, like archaeological sites and historic structures, and the current framework of law, regulation, and policy in the United States meant to protect these resources. This Article blends research and data from climate …

State Public Nuisance Claims And Climate Change Adaptation, Albert C. Lin, Michael Burger

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for state public nuisance claims to facilitate adaptation, resource protection, and other climate change responses by coastal communities in California. The California public nuisance actions represent just the latest chapter in efforts to spur responses to climate change and attribute responsibility for climate change through the common law. Part II of this Article describes the California public nuisance lawsuits and situates them in the context of common law actions directed against climate change. Part III considers the preliminary defenses that defendants have raised and could raise in the California public nuisance lawsuits, including the existence …

The Carbon Tax Vacuum And The Debate About Climate Change Impacts: Emission Taxation Of Commodity Crop Production In Food System Regulation, Gabriela Steier

Pace Environmental Law Review

The scientific consensus on climate change is far ahead of U.S. policy on point. In fact, the U.S. has a legal vacuum of carbon taxation while climate change continues to impact the codependence of agriculture and the environment. As this Article shows, carbon taxes follow the polluter-pays model, levying taxes on the highest greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions—and contributions to climate change. But this is not only unsustainable; it would also undermine agricultural production and, thus, food security. This Article describes how the law can regulate climate change contributions and promote adaptation and mitigation supported through carbon taxes in the agricultural …

A Comparative Study On Carbon Emission Reduction Systems, Mingde Cao

Dissertations & Theses

The overwhelming majority of scientists have concluded that global warming is unequivocal. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth report in 2013 concluded that the challenge of climate disruption to human beings is even more imperative than the previous report claimed, and that anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions have extremely likely been the dominant causes of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century.

Anthropogenic GHGs emissions have many implications, including more intensive, extreme meteorological events, spreading of diseases, and threatening human health and life. Climate change also causes injustice in human society because of the dislocation of the …

Labor Leading On Climate: A Policy Platform To Address Rising Inequality And Rising Sea Levels In New York State, J. Mijin Cha

Pace Environmental Law Review

With the renewed need for state action, this paper presents a case study of a labor-led initiative in New York State that seeks to address both economic inequality and the climate crisis. It discusses how organized labor, which has historically represented fossil fuel workers and has not been seen as a traditional climate ally, put forth a comprehensive climate jobs plan that could meaningfully reduce carbon emissions while also creating good, family-sustaining jobs to reduce income inequality. As the need for a broader coalition to advocate for sensible climate policy increases, this case study provides a road map for states …

Dual Environmentalism: Demand Response Mechanisms In Wholesale And Retail Energy Markets, Sarah M. Main

Pace Environmental Law Review

This note argues that a dual jurisdictional approach to demand response programming is better suited to mitigate environmental harms than an “either-or” regulatory model. Through an exploration of FERC’s authority over wholesale demand response, state authority over retail-level demand response, and implications for electricity and capacity markets arising out of the Court’s decision in FERC v. EPSA, this note will offer effective legal mechanisms for mitigating environmental costs, while fostering environmental benefits. The next section of this note analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of state and federal regulatory approaches to demand response in isolation.

Based on this assessment, this note …

Extraterritoriality, Externalities, And Cross-Border Trade: Some Lessons From The United States, The European Union, And The World Trade Organization, Max S. Jansson

Pace Environmental Law Review

In this article, process and production method (PPM) rules are analyzed under three jurisdictions: the United States, the European Union (EU), and the World Trade Organization (WTO. The approach is justified by the fact that their rules on interstate trade reflect very similar basic objectives related to anti-protectionism. Moreover, the regimes, to a large extent, share the same structure of rules on prohibition balanced with rules on justification. All in all, the regimes reveal similar syntax. The comparability of the U.S. Dormant Commerce Clause Doctrine with both WTO law and EU free movement law has been highlighted already in previous …

Waste Management Vs. Climate Mitigation: How Co2 Sparked A Clash Of Environmental Values, Wesley Dyer

Pace Environmental Law Review

The looming threats of climate change dominate global politics, national and economic security, science, and environmental policy. As such, global, national, regional, local, federal, and state strategies are being developed to slow and mitigate the devastating effects of a warming climate. One such strategy that is slowly being used on a global and national scale is geologic sequestration, where carbon dioxide (CO₂) is captured, compressed to a supercritical state, and injected underground for permanent removal from the atmosphere. At the same time, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulates the transport, storage, and disposal of solid and …

Climate Change Effects On Snow Conditions And The Human Rights Of Reindeer Herders, Stefan Kirchner

Pace Environmental Law Review

By ignoring the needs of indigenous livelihoods, traditional forms of land use that have long been sustainable, new forms of land use and the construction of infrastructure threaten the right of indigenous peoples to engage in traditional livelihoods. It is the aim of this article to analyze the rights of indigenous peoples in the context of primary and secondary effects of climate change. For the purposes of this paper, the term “primary effects” will be used to describe immediate effects of climate change. This includes temperatures which move around freezing instead of being solidly below freezing.

Primary effects of climate …

Fossil Fuel Abolition: Legal And Social Issues, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will examine the practical, ethical, legal, and socio-political implications of fossil fuel abolition. First, the Article will consider the practical, ethical, and legal arguments in favor of fossil fuel abolition. Then, the Article will examine possible legal means and authorities to implement abolition in the United States, as well as potential legal objections to fossil fuel abolition. Finally, the Article will consider legal abolition’s capacity to effect the far-reaching changes in our socioeconomic system that a ban on fossil fuels will entail. The Article also will compare the climate reform movement to other social law reform movements in …

Mitigating Climate Change By Zoning For Solar Energy Systems: Embracing Clean Energy Technology In Zoning’S Centennial Year, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Adopting land use regulations that encourage solar and other clean energy systems is an essential strategy for promoting clean power and one that focuses on the essential role that local governments play in mitigating climate change. This article explores efforts at the state and local level to reform zoning and land use regulations to permit, encourage, require, and incentivize rapidly-evolving clean energy systems, particularly solar, that, in the aggregate, have the ability to significantly increase power generation and decrease carbon emissions. The article illustrates how zoning, as it approaches its 100th anniversary, is encrusted with provisions that prohibit or discourage …

Municipal Wildfire Management In California: A Local Response To Global Climate Change, Sameer Ponkshe

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Note will examine the wildfire issue in California within the context of municipal government. Part II-A will present a concise look at the current state of affairs regarding climate change, which demonstrates that because little has changed on the international level regarding emissions reductions, the responsibility of protecting people from the catastrophes associated with climate change will fall to lower levels of government. Part II-B will then discuss how wildfire activity is affected by climate change, with specific attention to how the western U.S. has been affected. Part III of this Note focuses on actions of several different municipalities …

How To Avoid Constitutional Challenges To State Based Climate Change Initiatives: A Case Study Of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union V. Corey And New York State Programs, Lauren Baron

Pace Environmental Law Review

Considering the decision in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey and the EPA's actions in accordance with the President's Plan, this comment will outline best practices states can use in creating climate initiatives based on the challenges California faced in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey. Part II of this comment will analyze the reasoning in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey. Although certiorari was denied in the case, Part II will analyze recent Supreme Court dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence to determine which cases are relevant to consider when analyzing a dormant Commerce Clause challenge to state based climate initiatives. Part III will discuss the current …

California Climate Law---Model Or Object Lesson?, Daniel A. Farber

Pace Environmental Law Review

In the invitation to this Symposium on Reconceptualizing the Future of Environmental Law, the organizers explained that the Symposium “focuses on the continued expansion of environmental law into distinct areas of the law, requiring an increasingly multidisciplinary approach beyond that of traditional federal regulation.” In short, the question posed is about the future proliferation of environmental measures outside the previous domains of federal environmental statutes.

At the risk of being guilty of local parochialism, I would like to discuss how the future described by the organizers has already arrived in California--both in the sense that a great deal is happening …

Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article calls for a fundamental reorientation of international environmental law to bridge the North-South divide and respond to the ecological crises of the Anthropocene. Such a reconceptualization of international environmental law must be normatively grounded in respect for nature and in the quest for environmental justice within, as well as between, countries.

International environmental law must directly challenge the relentless drive toward economic expansion and unbridled exploitation of people and nature rather than merely attempt to mitigate its excesses. An essential step toward such a reconceptualization is to examine the ways in which international law has historically engaged with …

Reconceptualizing The Future Of Environmental Law: The Role Of Private Climate Governance, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Pace Environmental Law Review

The title of this Symposium, Reconceptualizing the Future of Environmental Law, accurately captures the challenge facing environmental law scholars and policymakers in 2015. The success of environmental law in the future will not arise from doubling down on the approaches developed over the last 50 years. Instead, it will arise from our willingness to learn from the past without being bound by the conceptual frameworks that dominated the early development of the field.

In particular, a successful future for environmental law is more likely to emerge if we acknowledge that the environmental problems, policy plasticity, and regulatory institutions that shaped …

Arguments In Support Of A Constitutional Right To Atmospheric Integrity, Elizabeth Fuller Valentine

Pace Environmental Law Review

As used in this paper, “atmospheric integrity” refers to the interrelated physical, chemical, and biological processes on planet Earth that enable human and non-human life now and in the future and recognizes that modern civilization has developed within the relatively stable, current geologic period known as the Holocene. I chose to focus on atmospheric integrity, rather than more broadly on environmental integrity, because the health of terrestrial and aquatic habitats is inextricably tied to atmospheric stability. This assertion is not meant to minimize the multitude of harms impacting land and water. It is just that the magnitude of the climate …

The State Response To Climate Change: 50 State Survey, Laura Jensen, Kelly Nishikawa, Benjamin Lowenthal

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This survey accompanies Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, Second Edition (Michael B. Gerrard and Jody Freeman, eds, 2014). It compiles state legislation, rules and executive orders that specifically address climate change as of the end of April 2014. It also includes a wide variety of state activities that may have an impact on greenhouse gases including legislation related to energy efficiency and renewable energy. The focus of this material is to provide readers with an understanding of the range of state activity that may contribute to greenhouse gas reduction and climate change. Some types of energy efficiency, alternative fuels …

Executive Power And Regional Climate Change Agreements, Conor J. Walline

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for such agreements to address climate change on a regional level by analyzing the parallels between the agreements, the nature and limits of the executive power used to create them, and the scope of enforcement available under them. Section II briefly examines the present state of climate warming and its attendant impacts, while Section III highlights the relative failure of current national and international approaches to mitigating climate change. Section IV focuses on the recent rise of environmental regional agreements in the United States, specifically those agreements to which the State of New York has …

Options For Adaption To Climate Change, Richard L. Ottinger, Pianpian Wang, Kristin M. Motel

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In order to tackle climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) provided a portfolio of measures: mitigation, adaptation and constant research. Although Article 10 of the Kyoto Protocol underlined the importance of adaptation, adaptation to climate change had been obtained limited attention in the early negotiations of climate talks. In 2010, Cancun Session of Conference of Parties (“COP”) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) highlighted the equal importance of adaptation just as mitigation. Since then, increasing attention has been drawn to adaptation practice by the international society. Typically, adaptation can be broken down into …

Innovative Financing For Renewable Energy, Richard L. Ottinger, John Bowie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Carbon pollution from fossil-fuel combustion is the largest contributor to climate change worldwide. Renewable energy can materially help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their principal cause, worldwide dependence on carbon fuels. If our goal is to remain at or below 1990 numbers, then fossil fuels must be phased out of the global energy portfolio.

While other factors such as energy inefficiencies in buildings, appliances and transportation, for example; deforestation, farm animal excretion, pipeline leakage, HFCs for refrigeration, black soot and changes in land use also contribute to increased emissions, finding new, innovative ways to empower people to seize …

Fundamental Principles Of Law For The Anthropocene?, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A wide array of questions arises from global change to confront environmental law. The IPCC has examined social decisions affecting the climate in the design of human settlements, transport systems, industrialisation, agriculture and silviculture, waste management, provisions for energy, and virtually all other socio-economic dimensions of human life. The AR-5, too, cannot avoid raising issues of human ethics and values at local and regional scales. Such issues reach environmental policy and law directly. The IPCC’s AR-5 report furthers widespread public debate about the human dimensions of climate change, and how social theory relates to environmental change. Already, climate change has …

The Climate Change-Sustainable Development Nexus: A Proposal For Convergence, Alvin K. Leong

Dissertations & Theses

This thesis is founded on the proposition that climate change and sustainable development are inextricably linked with each other and form a “nexus” that should be understood in a pragmatic and holistic way. Accordingly, the climate change “problem” cannot be adequately addressed in “silos” or by traditional output control techniques but instead should be viewed as a multidimensional challenge that calls for transformative change in the world energy sector in light of the wider contexts of sustainability and social equity. This thesis observes that with the emergence of a post-2015 development agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United …

Carbon Forest Markets And The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest: Can Market-Based Economic Incentives Save The Forest?, Romulo Silveira Da Rocha Sampaio

Dissertations & Theses

This study is divided into six main chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to situate forests in the global context and providing a detailed description of the Atlantic Rainforest's history, ecological features, geographical and demographical information and its potential contribution to emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. Considering the traditional trend of not valuing ecosystem services, this first chapter introduces the notion of economic incentives to promote forest conservation and regeneration policies highlighting existing market-based approaches. The goal is twofold: first, to compare the Atlantic forest's reality and characteristics with a worldwide deforestation trend; second to provide an understanding of …

Using Local Knowledge To Shrink The Individual Carbon Footprint, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Entire texts have been devoted to exploring the meaning of the term “lifestyle” and sociological understandings of lifestyle are complex and nuanced.For present purposes, however, a more simple articulation of the term will suffice. Lifestyle can mean “mode of living,” including “patterns of action” and “patterns of ways of living.” Without rendering judgment, one observation that can fairly be made about the current lifestyles and associated behaviors of Americans is that they indirectly and directly lead to the emission of a high volume of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”).⁷ Although an American diplomat is said to have remarked in preparing for …