Law Commons^™

President Trump’S Unilateral Attempt To Cease All Implementation Of The Paris Agreement And To Withdraw From It: Constitutional?, Phillip M. Kannan

Pace Environmental Law Review

In his announcement, President Trump stated that he would comply with the withdrawal provision in the Paris Agreement. This Essay argues that, while compliance with that process may satisfy the treaty obligation, it probably does not conform to U.S. constitutional standards, and therefore, would not be binding on the United States. The argument demonstrating the failure of the President to satisfy constitutional standards proceeds as follows. Part I develops the context in which the Paris Agreement arose. Part II briefly summarizes the Paris Agreement. In Part III, I argue that President Trump’s attempt to cease implementation of the Paris Agreement …

Can He Do That?: A Constitutional Analysis Of President Trump’S Withdrawal From The Paris Agreement, David Hubinger

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is structured to give context as to the history of United Nations-sponsored, climate change centered, international agreements from the early 1990s to the present. The Article also shows how the goals and responsibilities placed on the United States as a part of the Paris Agreement may still be realized even without full party membership. Additionally, the Article discusses the structural framework of the Paris Agreement and the significance of its legal classification when deciding how President Trump can leave the agreement in accordance with international law. The Article will also discuss how President Trump’s actions regarding the Paris …

The Renewable Power Of The Mine, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Access to affordable and reliable energy is key for the mining sector and with rising demand for minerals and falling ore grades, energy demand is estimated to increase by 36% by 2035. Today, energy produced and procured by mining companies is mostly fossil fuel based. This will have to change if the sector is to contribute to the decarbonization of the world economy, needed for countries to meet the target adopted at the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, the costs of solar, wind and battery storage systems have …

Challenges And Opportunities Of A Forthcoming Strategic Assessment Of The Implications Of International Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For Individual Undertakings In Canada, Robert B. Gibson, Karine Péloffy, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada is preparing to initiate a challenging, but potentially ground-breaking, strategic assessment on the implications of its climate change mitigation commitments for project assessments. The strategic assessment is immediately needed to provide project-level guidance for decision makers who will be required under new federal legislation to consider the extent to which each assessed project “contributes to sustainability” and “hinders or contributes to” meeting Canada’s climate commitments. However, Canada, like many other countries, has not yet translated its Paris Agreementclimate commitments into an adequate suite of specific policies, pathways, budgets, and other directives for compliance. Consequently, the climate commitments’ strategic assessment …

The Trump Effect On Power Plant Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Thomas O. Mcgarity

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article will probe the legal, technological and economic underpinnings the Trump Administration initiatives and the viewpoint that their initiatives will have little impact on CO2 emissions from power plants. Part II will highlight the Trump Administration’s views on the extent to which human activities are the leading contributing factor. Part III will describe the radical change in direction that that the Trump Administration is taking with respect to regulations designed to reduce GHG emissions from power plants. Part IV will offer predictions about the likely effect of the Trump Administration’s rollbacks on the electric power and coal industries, on …

The Paris Agreement: Its Role In International Law And American Jurisprudence, Kayla Clark

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Paris Agreement is the most articulate and influential international legal agreement on climate change to date. However, despite record breaking levels of international participation, the future of the Agreement remains uncertain. United States President Donald Trump's decision to remain a part of the international community's efforts on climate change has the potential to affect the scope and scale of this acclaimed treaty. In this note, I discuss the development of the Paris agreement as compared to the Kyoto Protocol, and how its construction promises to facilitate successful implementation. Additionally, given the United States' prominent international role, I discuss the …

Il Contributo Delle Compagnie Oil & Gas Nel Raggiungimento Degli Obiettivi Energetici E Climatici (How Oil And Gas Companies Can Help Meet The Global Goals On Energy And Climate Change), Lisa E. Sachs, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Nel settembre 2015, i governi di tutto il mondo hanno adottato17 Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Goals – SDG) e, pochi mesi dopo – a dicembre – hanno firmatol’Accordo di Parigi. Queste azioni sono la riprova delrafforzamento del consenso globalecirca la necessità di frenare il cambiamento climatico indotto dalle attività antropiche e dipromuovere uno sviluppo sostenibilesu scala mondiale. I due concetti sono infatti strettamente legati: l’urgenza di affrontare il cambiamento climatico va inquadrata nella cornice degli sforzi globali tesi a ridurre la povertà, promuovere la crescita economica, rispettare i diritti umani e di inclusione sociale.

On September 2015, governments …

Innovators Beat The Climate Change Heat With Humanitarian Licensing And Patent Pools, Andrea Nocito

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Article 6 Of The Paris Agreement: Ensuring Adequate Protection Of Human Rights In The Sdm And Itmo Frameworks, Romany M. Webb, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement recognizes the right of Parties to cooperate in the implementation of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) through both market- and non-market-based approaches. One market-based approach is outlined in Article 6.2 which provides for “the use of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes [(ITMOs)] towards” NDCs. This is widely seen as establishing a “bottom-up” approach, whereby “mitigation outcomes,” representing emission reduction credits, can be transferred internationally and then become ITMOs. It can be contrasted with other market-based approaches that are “top-down,” involving centralized programs supporting emission reduction projects. One such program is created in Article 6.4 of …

Annex 6: Changing Ocean Impacts On The Key Forage Fish Species Arctic Cod In The Western Canadian Arctic – Linking Climate Model Projections To Subsistence Fisheries, Nadja Steiner, William W. L. Cheung, Helen Drost, Carie Hoover, Jen Lam, Lisa Miller, Andres M. Cisneros-Montemayor, Tessa Sou, U. Rashid Sumaila, Paul Suprenand, Travis C. Tai

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This annex highlights the results of a study focusing on the potential impacts of ocean acidification and other climate- related stressors on marine species relevant for subsistence fisheries in the Western Arctic Bioregion. The study uses a knowledge co-production approach developed in the form of a multi-step process based on a combination of modelling and analysis tools including the Scientific Method and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (Figure A6.1). Once all steps have been completed, uncertainties can be estimated and improvements can be made either with respect to the individual steps or to the linkages between them. The process can then be …

Examples Of Global And Regional Laws And Policies Relevant To Addressing The Potential Impacts Of Climate Change And Ocean Acidification, David Vanderzwaag, Nadja Steiner, Jan René Larsen

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Laws and policies relevant to the potential impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine species and coastal communities appear at the global and regional level, as well as the national level (see Annex 6).

Decarbonizing International Shipping: Potential Roles Of The Imo’S Initial Strategy And The Un Climate Regime, Meinhard Doelle, Aldo Chircop

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article assesses the IMO’s 2018 Strategy to reduce GHG emissions from international shipping in light of the long-term goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, and considers its ambition, adequacy and effectiveness in ensuring a fair contribution to the global decarbonization effort. The article proceeds in four parts. In Part 1, we offer a brief history of efforts to reduce emissions from international shipping under the UN Climate Regime. This is followed in Part 2 with a similar overview of historical efforts under the IMO. In Part 3, we discuss the key elements of the 2018 IMO Strategy, followed by …

Incentive Compatible Climate Change Mitigation: Moving Beyond The Pledge And Review Model, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

Climate change represents a global commons problem, where individuals, businesses, and nation-states all lack sufficient incentives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with meeting their collectively agreed upon mitigation goals. The current "pledge and review" paradigm for global climate change mitigation, which many see as a major breakthrough, relies primarily on moral pressure, reputational incentives, and global public opinion to foster cooperation on mitigation efforts over and above those driven by maximization of narrow conceptions of national interests. Given the scale of the emissions reductions required to meet stated mitigation goals, the substantial economic costs of deep …

What Happened To Byrd-Hagel? Its Curious Absence From Evaluations Of The Paris Agreement, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In the midst of the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the U.S. Senate adopted the “Byrd-Hagel Resolution,” co-sponsored by Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Passed by a vote of 95-0, it reflected the Senate’s view that the international climate change agreement then being negotiated by the Clinton Administration was not on the right track. Specifically, it signaled dissatisfaction with an agreement that would contain legally binding greenhouse gas emissions commitments for developed countries without such commitments in the same time period for developing countries.

By its terms, the Byrd-Hagel Resolution applied …

Climate Change And Human Trafficking After The Paris Agreement, Michael Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

At least 21 million people globally are victims of human trafficking, typically involving either sexual exploitation or forced labor. This form of modern-day slavery tends to increase after natural disasters or conflicts where large numbers of people are displaced from their homes and become highly vulnerable. In the decades to come, climate change will very likely lead to a large increase in the number of people who are displaced and thus vulnerable to trafficking. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 established objectives to limit global temperature increases, but the voluntary pledges made by nearly every country fall far short of …

Going Negative: The Next Horizon In Climate Engineering Law, Tracy Hester, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

As the global community struggles to turn the Paris Agreement’s commitments into meaningful emission reductions and the United States turbulently reverses its climate policies, the potential role of “negative emissions technologies” and other climate engineering approaches is drawing increasingly serious attention. These technologies are engineering on the grandest scale: climate engineering seeks to offset the effects of anthropogenic climate change by either altering the solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface or changing the composition of the atmosphere itself. Specifically, negative emissions technologies would directly remove greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the ambient air and help to remove accumulated atmospheric carbon dioxide …