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Full-Text Articles in Law
Addressing Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation Through Insurance For Overseas Investments: The Example Of The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Lise Johnson
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications
In 2008, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimated that investments of between US$540–570 billion in physical assets and other financial flows will be needed to adequately reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change; additionally, tens and possibly hundreds of billions of dollars may be necessary to enable countries to adapt to the phenomenon’s challenges. Through climate negotiations under the UNFCCC in Copenhagen and Cancun, developed country governments committed to provide developing countries roughly US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012 and to mobilize approximately US$100 billion per year by 2020 for climate change activities. …
Mexico's General Climate Change Law, Michael B. Gerrard, Anne Siders
Mexico's General Climate Change Law, Michael B. Gerrard, Anne Siders
Faculty Scholarship
Mexico’s General Climate Change Law (CCL) creates a coherent and ambitious national framework within which Mexico may fulfill its Copenhagen Pledge and establish itself as an international leader in climate change mitigation, but achieving these ends will require significant and on-going support from the Mexican government.
American Natures: The Shape Of Conflict In Environmental Law, Jedediah S. Purdy
American Natures: The Shape Of Conflict In Environmental Law, Jedediah S. Purdy
Faculty Scholarship
There is a firestorm of political and cultural conflict around environmental issues, including, but running well beyond, climate change. Legal scholarship is in a bad position to make sense of this conflict because the field has concentrated on making sound policy recommendations to an idealized lawmaker, neglecting the deeply held and sharply clashing values that drive, or block, environmental lawmaking. This Article sets out a framework for understanding and engaging the clash of values in environmental law and, by extension, approaching the field more generally. Americans have held, and legislated based upon, four distinct ideas about why the natural world …
Science Heads List Of Candidate Debate Queries, Michael B. Gerrard
Science Heads List Of Candidate Debate Queries, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
Policy on the environment, energy, and natural resources has seldom figured prominently in a presidential election, all the less so as time elapses since the first Earth Day. To judge by the more than twenty debates thus far in the current presidential campaign, it isn’t likely to be on top of the agenda this year. Although regulation itself has been featured in the campaign – recall the criticism of the new lightbulb efficiency standards and of the Solyndra bankruptcy, not to mention rejection of climate change science – broader topics in environmental policy have largely taken a back seat to …
Consideration Of Climate Change In Federal Eiss, 2009-2011, Patrick Woolsey
Consideration Of Climate Change In Federal Eiss, 2009-2011, Patrick Woolsey
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
In recent years, climate change has become an increasingly prominent subject of discussion in EISs. A comparison of agency approaches to EIS scope and methodology shows widely varying treatment of climate change impacts. Agencies differ in the methods used to calculate emissions and assess their significance. In addition, the types of indirect impacts addressed and the extent to which the impacts of climate change on the project are included vary.
Analysis Of California, Washington, And New York Insurer Climate Risk Surveys For The 2011 Reporting Year, Irene Shulman
Analysis Of California, Washington, And New York Insurer Climate Risk Surveys For The 2011 Reporting Year, Irene Shulman
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Climate change has the potential to affect the availability and affordability of insurance across most major insurance categories. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) adopted the Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survey in 2009, and in February 2012, California, Washington, and New York administered the survey to insurance companies that write in excess of $300 million in premiums annually. This working paper summarizes and analyzes the survey responses that were submitted to California, Washington, and New York in 2012 for the 2011 reporting year. The working paper found that the majority of the 400 survey responses indicated that climate change …
Livestock And Climate Change – Annotated Bibliography, Julia Christian, Andrew Kirchner, Derek Nelson, Jessica A. Wentz
Livestock And Climate Change – Annotated Bibliography, Julia Christian, Andrew Kirchner, Derek Nelson, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Over the past two decades, efforts to address climate change have primarily focused on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel combustion. The potential contribution of livestock production to climate change has been largely overlooked. Recent scholarship suggests that activities related to livestock production constitute a significant proportion of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although estimates of livestock’s contribution to our overall GHG emissions range broadly – from 18% to 51% – there is no question that this impact warrants serious consideration from policy makers.
State Dynamism, Federal Constraints: Possible Constitutional Hurdles To Cross-Border Cap-And-Trade, Shelley Welton
State Dynamism, Federal Constraints: Possible Constitutional Hurdles To Cross-Border Cap-And-Trade, Shelley Welton
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This article explores the constitutional viability of expanding domestic, state-run cap-and-trade programs to include Canadian provinces. It examines four constitutional doctrines that might be used to challenge these cross-border collaborations: preemption, the dormant foreign affairs power, the Compact Clause, and the dormant foreign Commerce Clause. Ultimately, it makes the case that while these doctrines are flexible enough that they could be interpreted to prohibit cross-border cap-and-trade, courts would be wise to let these novel and commendable state initiatives proceed.
What Litigation Of A Climate Nuisance Suit Might Look Like, Michael B. Gerrard
What Litigation Of A Climate Nuisance Suit Might Look Like, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
In American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (AEP), the Supreme Court explicitly left ajar the door to litigation under state (as opposed to federal) common law for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some plaintiffs' lawyers are also arguing that the decision leaves room for seeking money damages (rather than injunctive relief) even in a federal common law case.
For purposes of this Article, let's imagine a world in which the courthouse doors are swung open to common law claims for damages for GHG emissions, and the courts have rejected all defenses based on displacement, preemption, political question, and standing. In …