Law Commons^™

Climate Change And The Right To Food: A Comprehensive Study, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

Climate change and the policies instituted to combat it are affecting the realiza- tion of the right to food in myriad, often unnoticed ways. This report highlights how – despite the common objective to preserve human welfare for present and future generations – the climate change regime and the human rights regime addressing the right to food have failed to coordinate their agendas and to collab- orate to each other’s mutual benefit. The current climate change regime fails to accurately address the human harms resulting from climate change itself, and is not operating with the necessary safeguards and preventive measures …

The Costs Of Carbon: Examining The Competitiveness And International Trade Dimensions Of The Waxman-Markey House Bill, Svetlana German

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

As the United States considers unilateral climate change action, uncertainty exists as to the compatibility of the proposed trade related measures to global warming. This paper considers the rationale behind any trade measures designed to address competitiveness and carbon leakage following the introduction of unilateral climate change legislation (Part I). The paper then assesses the international legality of the proposed measures in the Waxman-Markey Bill under World Trade Organisation (WTO) law (Part II) and proposes alternative mechanisms that may yield economically sound solutions while remaining mindful of equitable principles (Part III).

International Executive Agreements On Climate Change, Hannah Chang

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The difficulty of ratifying any future climate change agreement through the Article II treaty process calls for an understanding of the scope of the President’s independent power to enter into internationally binding commitments related to climate change. This power is necessarily limited, but as this paper shows, the President’s foreign affairs powers, together with authority derived from existing treaty obligations and federal statutes, provide legal authority for the President to enter executive agreements relating to measurement, reporting, and verification; aviation emissions; cooperative research and development in science and technology; and capacity-building for developing countries.

Feeding Climate Change: Federal Food Procurement And Its Effects On Global Warming, Amanda Hungerford

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper examines the technical aspects and policy implications of each of four strategies to effectuate environmentally conscious policies in the federal government's food procurement procedures: a litigation strategy, a rulemaking strategy, a NEPA strategy, and a legislative strategy.

Addressing The Energy Efficiency Financing Challenge: The Role And Limitations Of A Green Bank, Christopher Angell

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper will address how a federal program to aggregate and potentially guarantee loans made to finance energy efficiency projects can be leveraged to promote best practices on the state and local level for opening up energy efficiency projects to external financing. There are a number of existing financing tools that have started to solve the problem of providing access to capital for efficiency projects, but the programs are all relatively small and have had limited market penetration. One essential, but not exclusive, solution will be to create a federal entity, based on existing green bank proposals, that has the …

Access To Environmentally Sound Technology In The Developing World: A Proposed Alternative To Compulsory Licensing, Neel Maitra

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In 2008, a report published by McKinsey & Co. predicted that a successful program of action on climate change would require the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 76% by the year 2050. In order to achieve this seemingly daunting target, the report recognized that the transfer of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) from the developed to the developing world was an urgent necessity. The report cited other sources to acknowledge that such technology transfer was unlikely to be achieved even by a combination of market incentives and funding from developed-world governments.

If market-oriented means, supported by governments, do not suffice …

Towards A Greenhouse Gas Labeling Regime For Food, Travis Annatoyn

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper proposes that the federal government implement greenhouse gas labeling standards for food and food products sold within the United States. A labeling regime of this sort would shift consumer purchasing from “high emission” to “low emission” foods and encourage consumer awareness that food, like any other commodity, has a GHG “price.”

Cash For Clunky Appliances, Anna S. Fleder

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper examines the viability of a “Cash for Appliances” (“CfA”) program that targets home appliances toward the goal of increasing energy efficiency and decreasing greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Analyzing an existing CfA effort at the federal level, this paper argues that the case for a federal CfA program is strong, but that the current federal effort falls short of fulfilling its potential. The analysis proceeds in four parts. Part I makes the case for a Cash for Appliances program as a policy tool for promoting energy efficiency. Part II examines existing programs that have done just this – utilized …

Environmental Law In 2049: A Look Back, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

December 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act, which started the modern era of environmental law, and the 40th anniversary of the Environmental Law Institute, which was founded to monitor the new field and to create a profession around the emerging discipline. To mark this anniversary, we asked a range of luminaries to forecast how environmental law and the profession dedicated to its successful implementation will mature over the next four decades. Will environmental protection still be the product of a social movement, or will it have become incorporated as part of the cost of doing …

Taking Action In New York On Climate Change, Michael B. Gerrard, David Driesen, Veronica Eady Famira, J. Kevin Healy, Katrina Kuh, Edward Lloyd, Eileen Millett, David Paget, Virginia Robbins, Patricia Salkin, James Sevinsky, James Van Nostrand

Faculty Scholarship

The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Task Force on Global Warming (the Task Force) has been convened by NYSBA President Bernice Leber to summarize New York’s existing laws and programs regarding climate change and to make specific proposals that the State can implement in a timely and cost-effective fashion to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to prepare for the impacts of climate change. New York has taken many steps to address climate change; however, there is much more that can be done. The Task Force has not attempted to comprehensively suggest every possible action, but rather has selected …

Greenhouse Gases: Emerging Standards For Impact Review, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Numerous federal and state judicial decisions have established that environmental impact statements (EISs) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state equivalents should examine the impact of proposed projects on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), the principal anthropogenic cause of climate change. Administrative agencies and court settlements are now establishing the guidelines for the conduct of these examinations.