Law Commons^™

Comparison Between The Ipcc Reporting Framework And Country Practice, Jiarui Chen, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

To further and fully understand how to plan for the decarbonization of mining value chains, we need better data on carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, neither consumers, corporates, or financial institutions know the embodied emissions in the products they produce or sell. While methods like life-cycle analysis and environmental product declarations exist, none use a verifiable, comparable, or widely adopted emissions reporting framework capable of sending supply chain signals.

To truly reform material supply chains, new solutions for markets, capital, and policy are required. COMET (the Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency) – an alliance launched at Davos …

Spectacular Imaginations Of The Sinking Island, Emma Schneck

Senior Theses and Projects

As entire island nations slip beneath rising seas, how can we reimagine a political future where the effects of climate change are already in full force? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that there is a fundamental lack of legal protections for those fleeing environmental degradation and the effects of global sea level rise. This lack of protection is felt particularly strongly in the Pacific region, where many communities are faced with existential threats to their way of life and self-determination. However, despite this historic lack of support from the international community, the Pacific Islands states have continuously …

The Netherlands V Urgenda Foundation: Lessons For Using International Human Rights Law In Canada To Address Climate Change, Karinne Lantz

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This case digest focuses on the Canadian implications of Urgenda— particularly with respect to current attempts to use human rights arguments to require more ambitious and immediate efforts to reduce Canadian GHG emissions. Although the Canadian Arctic (and Indigenous communities residing there) are particularly vulnerable to the threats posed by global climate change, there has not yet been a court decision addressing Canada’s continuing failure to meet its successive GHG emissions targets. With pending climate litigation invoking a human rights approach, it is only a matter of time before Canadian courts will be faced with deciding, among other things, whether …

The Contact Group On Somali Piracy: An Unlikely Model For Protecting The Environment?, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

International environmental law covers a wide range of subjects, is extremely detailed, and evolves very rapidly. No wonder it is challenging for practitioners to keep up with developments. An expert in marine pollution regimes may be unaware of the latest initiatives on forest conservation. Given how hyper-specialized the climate world has become, an expert on mitigation may be only mildly aware of recent advances in adaptation. And neither may be in a position to keep up with innovations in international law more broadly.

Deep knowledge has its advantages, but also some drawbacks. When we are faced with the need to …

Transnational Perspectives On The Paris Climate Agreement Beyond Paris: Redressing American Defaults In Caring For Earth’S Biosphere, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Anxiety about the fate of human civilization is rising. International Law has an essential role to play in sustaining community of nations. Without enhancing International Environmental Law, the biosphere that sustains all nations is imperiled. Laws in the United States can either impede or advance global environmental stewardship. What is entailed in such a choice?

The biosphere is changing. At a time when extraordinary technological prowess allows governments the capacity to know how deeply they are altering Earth's biosphere, nations experience a perverse inability to cooperate together. The Arctic is melting rapidly, with knock on effects for sea level rise …

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 …

International Law And Policy Considerations For Shipping's Contribution To Climate Change Mitigation, Aldo Chircop, Meinhard Doelle, Ryan Gauvin

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report investigates the international law and policy challenges to the determination of the international shipping industry's contribution to climate change mitigation efforts through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the competent intergovernmental organization with respect to shipping in international law. The report sets out the international legal framework that serves as context for the IMO efforts, the challenge of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping and the process and issues in determining the industry's 'fair share' of mitigation efforts and potential legal pathways. The report concludes with general, policy and legal …

Shipping And Climate Change: International Law And Policy Considerations, Aldo Chircop, Meinhard Doelle, Ryan Gauvin

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report investigates the international law and policy challenges to the determination of the international shipping industry's contribution to climate change mitigation efforts through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the competent intergovernmental organization with respect to shipping in international law. The report sets out the international legal framework that serves as context for the IMO efforts, the challenge of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping and the process and issues in determining the industry's 'fair share' of mitigation efforts and potential legal pathways. The report concludes with general, policy and legal …

Changing International Law For A Changing Climate, Daniel C. Esty, Dena P. Adler

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

After more than two decades of inadequate international efforts to address climate change resulting from rising greenhouse gas emissions, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement shifted gears. That agreement advances a “bottom-up” model of global cooperation that requires action commitments from all national governments and acknowledges the important role that cities, states, provinces, and businesses must play in delivering deep decarbonization. Given the limited control that presidents and prime ministers have over many of the policies and choices that determine their countries’ carbon footprints, the Paris Agreement missed an opportunity to formally recognize the climate change action commitments of mayors, …

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 …

The Paris Agreement And The International Trade Regime: Considerations For Harmonization, Charles E. Di Leva, Xiaoxin Shi

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And Common But Differentiated Responsibilities For The Ocean, Robin Kundis Craig

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Nations’ impacts on the ocean and their impacts on climate change are linked, especially given the synergistic interactions among these impacts on the two largest global commons—the atmosphere and the ocean. This article argues that climate change mitigation law, as represented internationally by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its follow-on agreements, can better reflect nations’ broader Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) by taking ocean impacts into account—in particular, contributions to ocean acidification and to marine fishing.

Rethinking Force Majeure In Public International Law, Myanna Dellinger

Pace Law Review

Climate change is one of today’s most significant and complex problems. The number and level of severity of extreme weather events is increasing rapidly around the world. One year after the next, we learn that heat records have been broken once again. Climate change has been traced to a wide range of severe problems around the world, ranging from the obvious damage caused by hurricanes, floods, extreme rainfall, prolonged droughts, wildfires and a host of other weather-related issues to the perhaps less obvious such as physical and mental illnesses, “civil unrest, riots, mass migrations and perhaps wars caused by water …

Ridding Pes Systems Of The “Pay To Pollute” Principle: Pes Optimization Strategies, Kelly Carlson

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Blood Biofuels, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trust Or Bust: Complications With Tribal Trust Obligations And Environmental Sovereignty, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Act Locally, Reflect Globally: A Checklist Of Options For U.S. Cities And States To Engage Internationally In Climate Action, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

U.S. cities and states are increasingly asking how they can play a more visible and active role in international climate change efforts.

Cities and states have obvious incentives to take action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But why engage internationally? They may seek to demonstrate leadership or gain appropriate recognition for “doing their part.” They may want to inspire others to follow suit or support them in doing so, such as through exchanging best practices. They may seek to join the global march toward low-emission and resilient societies. Or they may want to show the world that U.S. …

I Beg To Differ: Taking Account Of National Circumstances Under The Paris Agreement, The Icao Market-Based Measure, And The Montreal Protocol’S Hfc Amendment, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper explores the different ways in which negotiators to three recent environmental instruments accounted for different national circumstances in formulating commitments and other aspects of cooperation in the instruments. The author finds that the negotiators of these instruments have significantly expanded the arsenal of differentiation tools based on considerations pertaining to logic, fairness, limited capacity, and negotiating leverage.

The International Maritime Law Response To Climate Change: The Quest For The Shipping Industry's 'Fair Share' Of Ghg Emissions Reduction, Aldo Chircop

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper discusses the role of international shipping in climate change mitigation, i.e., its emerging contribution to reduce carbon emissions in the wake of the Paris Agreement, 2015 and the expectation that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will orchestrate the industry's contribution. The adoption of appropriate targets and standards is expected to be a particularly difficult task because of the global and transnational nature of the shipping industry and the difficulty in establishing the basis for a fair contribution for this industry. While considerable progress has been achieved in enhancing technical and operational regulations to improve efficiencies and reduce harmful …

The Paris Agreement: Historic Breakthrough Or High Stakes Experiment?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article offers an overview of the two key outcomes of the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Paris COP decision, and the Paris Agreement. They chart a new course for the UN climate regime that started in earnest in Copenhagen in 2009. The Paris Agreement represents a course away from the top down approach and rigid differentiation among parties reflected in the Kyoto Protocol, toward a bottom up and flexible approach focused on collective long term goals and principles. It represents an approach to reaching these long term goals that is focused on self differentiation, support, transparency and review. The …

Loss And Damage In The Un Climate Regime: Prospects For Paris, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper provides an overview of the Warsaw Mechanism on Loss and Damage and the treatment of the issue under the UNFCCC up to COP 20 in Lima, Peru. The gradual emergence of the issue in the climate negotiations is tracked, leading to the creation of the Warsaw Loss and Damage Mechanism in 2013. The Chapter considers the current state of the issue in the regime, and the prospects for loss and damage in the post 2020 climate regime to be negotiated in Paris in December, 2015.

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

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change is a major contributor to migration and displacement. Persistent drought forced as many as 1.5 million Syrian farmers to move to overcrowded cities, contributing to social turmoil and ultimately a civil war that drove hundreds of thousands of people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Drought also worsened refugee crises in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and other parts of the continent. Climate change can cause displacement in multiple ways. No reliable estimates exist of the number of people who will be displaced partly or wholly by climate change, due to uncertainties concerning the rate …

Effect Of The Paris Climate Agreement On U.S. Businesses, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

In December, 195 countries convened in Paris for the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To the surprise and delight of most of the participants, the conference ended in consensus among all the participants on a document, the Paris Agreement, that will be opened for signature on April 22, 2016. President Barack Obama has indicated that the United States will sign it. (Co-author Michael Gerrard participated in the conference.)

Comma But Differentiated Responsibilities: Punctuation And 30 Other Ways Negotiators Have Resolved Issues In The International Climate Change Regime, Susan Biniaz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

International climate change negotiations have a long history of being contentious, and much has been written about the grand trade-offs that have allowed countries to reach agreement. Issues have often involved, for example, the level of ambition, differentiated treatment of Parties, and various forms of financial assistance to developing countries.

Lesser known are the smaller, largely language-based tools negotiators have used to resolve differences, sometimes finding a solution as subtle as a shift in the placement of a comma. These tools have operated in different ways. Some, such as deliberate imprecision or postponement, have “resolved” an issue by sidestepping it …

Forced Migration After Paris Cop21: Evaluating The "Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility", Phillip Dane Warren

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Climate change represents, perhaps, the greatest challenge of the twenty-first century. As temperatures and sea levels rise, governments around the world will face massive and unprecedented human displacement that international law currently has no mechanism to address. While estimates vary, the scope of the migration crisis that the world will face in the coming decades is startling. In addition to losing their homes, climate change migrants, under current law, will encounter a refugee system governed by a decades-old Refugee Convention that offers neither protection nor the right to resettle in a more habitable place. Armed with the most recent developments …

Sadly, The Paris Agreement Isn't Nearly Enough, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change is a major contributor to migration and displacement. Persistent drought forced as many as 1.5 million Syrian farmers to move to overcrowded cities, contributing to social turmoil and ultimately a civil war that drove hundreds of thousands of people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Drought also worsened refugee crises in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and other parts of the continent.

Three Major Developments In International Climate Change Law, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

The past month has seen a remarkable set of developments at the international level in controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – the entry into force of the Paris Climate Agreement, and major new agreements on controlling hydrofluorocarbon emissions and pollution from airplanes. The stunning election of Donald Trump on Tuesday casts the future of some but not all of these efforts into doubt, however.

"First, Do No Harm": Human Rights And Efforts To Combat Climate Change, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Naomi Roht-Arriaza

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Impacts On Ocean And Coastal Law: U.S. And International Perspectives, Randall S. Abate

Faculty Books and Book Contributions

Ocean and coastal law has grown rapidly in the past three decades as a specialty area within natural resources law and environmental law. The protection of oceans has received increased attention in the past decade because of sea-level rise, ocean acidification, the global overfishing crisis, widespread depletion of marine biodiversity such as marine mammals and coral reefs, and marine pollution. Paralleling the growth of ocean and coastal law, climate change regulation has emerged as a focus of international environmental diplomacy, and has gained increased attention in the wake of disturbing and abrupt climate change related impacts throughout the world that …

Designing A Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility: Key Issues For Cop 21, Jessica A. Wentz, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

There have been several proposals to include a “climate change displacement coordination facility” in the upcoming UNFCCC agreement, but there has been very little public discussion about what this facility would entail and how it would operate. This briefing note highlights some of the functions that the displacement coordination facility could fulfill, as well as some key questions for negotiators in the lead-up to COP 21 and subsequent talks. The note is not intended to be a proposal for how the facility should operate, nor do the functions highlighted below necessarily reflect what is politically or economically feasible. Rather, the …