Legal Pathways To Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under Section 115 Of The Clean Air Act,
2016
Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Legal Pathways To Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under Section 115 Of The Clean Air Act, Michael Burger, Ann E. Carlson, Michael B. Gerrard, Jayni Foley Hein, Jason A. Schwartz, Keith J. Benes
Faculty Scholarship
Under President Barack Obama the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has promulgated a series of greenhouse gas emissions regulations, initiating the necessary national response to climate change. However, the United States will need to find other ways to reduce GHG emissions if it is to live up to its international emissions reduction pledges, and to ultimately lead the way to a zero-carbon energy future. This paper argues that the success of the recent climate negotiations in Paris provides a strong basis for invoking a powerful tool available to help achieve the country’s climate change goals: Section 115 of the Clean Air …
Building Sustainable Futures In The Legal Classroom,
2016
Singapore Management University
Building Sustainable Futures In The Legal Classroom, Michelle Mei Ling Lim
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The stable functioning of Earth’s life support systems is a prerequisite for a thriving global society.1 There is however growing evidence that human impact is putting such functioning at risk. The likely impacts of global environmental change include diminishing food production, water scarcity, extreme weather, ocean acidification, deteriorating ecosystems and sea-level rise. These impacts will further undermine human well-being and long-term prosperity. 2 Present and future generations are therefore faced with unprecedented challenges and the quest to achieve sustainable futures is fraught with uncertainty
Using Online Databasing To Unlock The Full Value Of Environmental Impact Assessments,
2016
Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Using Online Databasing To Unlock The Full Value Of Environmental Impact Assessments, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper considers how a multi-disciplinary research community can build upon these efforts to further enhance online access to EIA documents and make it easier for the public to use the information contained in those documents. Part I lays the groundwork for this inquiry: it describes the types of information contained in EIA documents and the extent to which existing online databases provide an effective means of locating and searching through these documents. Part II discusses the potential applications of the information contained in these documents, and how this might inform priorities related to online database development. Part III contemplates …
Environmental Law: Time To Reboot,
2016
Vermont Law School
Environmental Law: Time To Reboot, James Gustave Speth
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Presentation given by James Gustave Speth at the 2016 David Sive Memorial Lecture.
Private Governance Can Increase Shipping's Efficiency And Reduce Its Impacts,
2016
Vanderbilt University Law School
Private Governance Can Increase Shipping's Efficiency And Reduce Its Impacts, Daniel J. Metzger
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
The shipping industry is a huge component of the world economy, and although it is often described as an efficient mode of transport, it still contributes as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as a major industrialized nation. Efficiency technologies and practices are available that would significantly lessen shipping's environmental impact, but "amazing loophole[s]" in international environmental law and a set of market failures have prevented them from being widely adopted. These problems have been studied before, but the public regulatory proposals being discussed run into steep, if not insurmountable obstacles. This Note argues that shipping inefficiency can be better …
Prioritizing Management And Protection Of The Colorado River's Environmental Resources,
2016
University of Colorado Law School
Prioritizing Management And Protection Of The Colorado River's Environmental Resources, Colorado River Research Group
Books, Reports, and Studies
4 pages.
Developing An Online Database Of Environmental Impact Statements,
2016
Columbia Law School
Developing An Online Database Of Environmental Impact Statements, Nilda Mesa
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
An overview of the development of the City of New York's City Environmental Quality Review online database, CEQR Access.
Designing And Maintaining An Eis Database: Lessons Learned In Developing Library-Based Digital Repositories,
2016
Columbia University
Designing And Maintaining An Eis Database: Lessons Learned In Developing Library-Based Digital Repositories, Robert T. Cartolano
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The Columbia University Libraries/Information Services (CUL/IS) have extensive experience building and maintaining systems for the discovery, access, and preservation of digital objects. This presentation discusses the lessons learned from Libraries projects and the current technologies in use for Libraries digital collections.
Leveraging Federal Land Plans Into Landscape Conservation,
2016
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Leveraging Federal Land Plans Into Landscape Conservation, Robert L. Fischman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Professor Fischman’s article suggests several ways in which a mandated unit-level (e.g. an individual national forest) plan can better contribute to goals of a larger region (e.g. the Willamette River watershed) and of federal agencies (e.g. mandates to maintain ecological integrity). The scientific literature is largely in agreement that achieving ecological integrity, adaptive management, and climate change resiliency all require large-scale coordination across property boundaries and jurisdictions. The author takes these widely accepted findings as a starting point and shows how public agencies can implement effective practices. The article attempts to integrate traditional regulatory analysis with actual planning practices as …
How Cheap Is Corporate Talk? Comparing Companies' Comments On Regulations With Their Securities Disclosures,
2016
Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
How Cheap Is Corporate Talk? Comparing Companies' Comments On Regulations With Their Securities Disclosures, James W. Coleman
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
When companies face adverse proposed rules, they may want to convince regulators that the proposed rules are unworkable and should be changed while, at the same time, reassuring investors that the rules will be manageable. These conflicting incentives may lead to inconsistent messages in regulatory comments and securities disclosures, fueling a perception that corporate submissions to regulators are cheap talk. Despite this perception, there has been no empirical study comparing statements to these two audiences. This project performs such a study, taking the example of comments submitted on the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard. This standard provides an ideal …
Considering The Effects Of Climate Change On Natural Resources In Environmental Review And Planning Documents: Guidelines For Agencies And Practitioners,
2016
Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Considering The Effects Of Climate Change On Natural Resources In Environmental Review And Planning Documents: Guidelines For Agencies And Practitioners, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper describes how climate change will affect natural resources in the United States, and explains why consideration of how climate change will affect those resources is necessary in order to fulfill legal requirements under NEPA and other statutes governing the management of these resources. It also presents examples of how climate change has been meaningfully accounted for in environmental review and planning documents. The accompanying protocol contains guidelines for considering the impacts of climate change in environmental reviews as well as other planning documents (e.g., resource management plans and resource assessments).
Forced Migration After Paris Cop21: Evaluating The "Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility",
2016
Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
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 …
Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces),
2016
University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley
Articles
Land conservation transactions have been the most active component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades. Conservation organizations have acquired property rights-mostly conservation easements-to protect roughly 40 million acres of land nationwide. However, climate change threatens this vast edifice. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may not persist on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements ("OPCEs") have long played a modest but important role in conservation law practice. In the world climate change is creating, with its substantial uncertainties and shifting windows of opportunity, …
A Mitigation Based Rationale For Incorporating A Climate Change Impacts Fee Into The Federal Coal Leasing Program,
2016
Columbia Law School, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
A Mitigation Based Rationale For Incorporating A Climate Change Impacts Fee Into The Federal Coal Leasing Program, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This paper describes the legal and policy rationale for imposing a fee on federal coal that reflects the costs of the climate change impacts generated by that coal. It notes that the federal government has a duty to mitigate climate impacts from the federal coal leasing program, and that the Department of Interior (“Interior”) and the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) have ample authority to impose a climate change impacts fee on coal leases as a form of compensatory mitigation for those coal leases. The paper also discusses technical issues that should be considered when assessing the effectiveness of this …
Laudato Si’ And Care For Our Common Home: What Does It Mean For The Legal Profession?,
2016
The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
Laudato Si’ And Care For Our Common Home: What Does It Mean For The Legal Profession?, Lucia A. Silecchia
Scholarly Articles
Pope Francis’s recent encyclical, Laudato Si’ (“Praised Be You”), has been one of the most widely anticipated papal documents in recent memory. It has also received far more popular commentary than would be expected of a papal encyclical. Yet, while Laudato Si’ has been widely dubbed “the climate change” encyclical, it is far broader than that. It is also a far-reaching analysis of a number of political, economic, social and legal issues, in addition to being an extensive exposition on human duties toward creation.
In the text of this encyclical, there are also some important lessons to be gleaned for …
“Social Love” As A Vision For Environmental Law: Laudato Si’ And The Rule Of Law,
2016
The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
“Social Love” As A Vision For Environmental Law: Laudato Si’ And The Rule Of Law, Lucia A. Silecchia
Scholarly Articles
In the years of his still-young papacy, Pope Francis has often spoken and written about ecological responsibility, addressing both the Catholic and global communities in his exhortations on environmental matters. In June of 2015, he released his most extensive exposition on these issues in his encyclical letter, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.In this wide-ranging encyclical, Pope Francis expressed a fascinating paradox with respect to law and ecology. On the one hand, Laudato Si’ contains a stunningly enthusiastic endorsement of a strong local, national and, in particular, international legal system empowered to impose strict environmental and economic controls …
The Morality Of Market Mechanisms,
2016
The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
The Morality Of Market Mechanisms, Lucia A. Silecchia
Scholarly Articles
In Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, the leader of the Catholic church presents a moral argument for combating climate change and other environmental harm. As he has done throughout his papacy, the Pope highlights concerns about economic disparity, arguing that climate change disproportionally impacts developing nations and the world’s poor. Along with critiques of “consumerism” and the modern economic system, the Pope expressed deep skepticism about the motives and impacts of market mechanisms as emissions reduction tools. The Pope is not the first to challenge the ethics of market-based systems of environmental protection. Critics have argued that …
Implementing A Greener Redd+ In Black & White: Preserving Wounaan Lands And Culture In Panama With Indigenous-Sensitive Modifications To Redd+,
2016
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Implementing A Greener Redd+ In Black & White: Preserving Wounaan Lands And Culture In Panama With Indigenous-Sensitive Modifications To Redd+, Cindy Campbell
American Indian Law Review
No abstract provided.
Towards A New International Law Of The Atmosphere?,
2016
Duke Law School
Towards A New International Law Of The Atmosphere?, Peter H. Sand, Jonathan B. Wiener
Faculty Scholarship
Inclusion of the topic ‘protection of the atmosphere’ in the current work programme of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) reflects the long overdue recognition of the fact that the scope of contemporary international law for the Earth’s atmosphere extends far beyond the traditional discipline of ‘air law’ as a synonym for airspace and air navigation law. Instead, the atmospheric commons are regulated by a ‘regime complex’ comprising a multitude of economic uses including global communications, pollutant emissions and diffusion, in different geographical sectors and vertical zones, in the face of different categories of risks, and addressed by a wide …
Environmental Regulation Going Retro: Learning Foresight From Hindsight,
2016
Duke Law School
Environmental Regulation Going Retro: Learning Foresight From Hindsight, Jonathan B. Wiener, Daniel L. Ribeiro
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
