Another Possible Means To Keep Global Warming Within 1.5 Degrees Celsius
Did the IPCC bury the lede regarding solar geoengineering?
In my previous posts on the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), I described how models assume the use of uncertain negative emissions technologies at very large -- if not impossible -- scales in order to keep global warming within 1.5 or two degrees Celsius (1, 2; see also my colleague Julia Stein). Does this mean that we will surpass these limits? No, not necessarily. For one thing, very aggressive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions c...
CONTINUE READINGFour Governor’s Races and the Environment
Here are four of the races that will help drive state energy and environmental policies.
There are a surprising number of governor’s seats in play in this election, with many ranked as toss-ups. After looking at ratings by different experts, I’ve picked four elections as especially interesting. As you’ll see, there were major differences between candidates in these raceson environmental and energy issues. Besides showing yet again why elections matter-- hopefully you figured that out since November 2016, if you hadn't done so earlier -- , the views of ...
CONTINUE READINGMore great environmental and energy law scholarship
Some of the best articles in the field from 2016-17
Some of our readers may be interested in what is happening in environmental and energy legal scholarship. So I thought I’d post again (I also did this in 2016) about the Land Use & Environment Law Review, which is Thomson Reuters/West Publishing’s peer-selected annual compendium of significant legal scholarship in land use and environmental law. About sixty reviewers (made up of environmental law professors) considered the full range of articles published in ...
CONTINUE READINGCEQA and Local Land-Use Regulations
California gubernatorial candidates debate the role of CEQA and local land-use regulations in the state’s housing crisis
The first (and probably only) debate in the California governor’s race happened earlier this week between Democratic nominee Gavin Newsom and Republican nominee John Cox. Appropriately enough both candidates were asked how they were going to address the state’s housing crisis. Newsom’s response was an ambitious target of 500,000 new homes/year through 2025 (far higher than current levels) through subsidies, and changing the incentives for local governments to z...
CONTINUE READINGThe Elephant In The Atmosphere
The IPCC’s report rings alarm bells on climate change.
As many major news outlets have reported, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) released a special report last Saturday detailing the harmful effects of global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This new threshold number is significant. The Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, but at the behest of small island nations fearing the consequences of climate change-induc...
CONTINUE READINGWhere Does California Stand On Managing Vehicle Pollution?
4 stories to watch as policymakers aim for cleaner air and safer streets
While California has been a decades-long leader in technologies and policies to reduce smog from cars, the state has in recent years been seriously ramping up efforts to simultaneously deliver cuts to vehicle carbon emissions, one of the state’s most stubborn climate policy challenges. Vehicle pollution poses both long-term risks for climate change and immediate public health hazards. This summer, air quality monitors in the LA region registered smog levels in excess o...
CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: The Lone Star State
Is Texas in play? The environmental stakes are high.
Texas is a late addition to my list of key Senate races. It's still not clear how genuinely Texas is in play, but it's surprising that we're even asking the question. Here's what we know about the candidates and the environment. Ted Cruz (R). Cruz managed to get a 0% score from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in 2017. His lifetime score is a whopping 3%. You may recall that he made his name as a state attorney general suing Obama, just like Scott Pruitt did...
CONTINUE READINGTrump Administration’s Quiet Policy Change Could More Than Double Hazardous Air Pollution in California
Change in MACT applicability could result in 935 additional tons of toxic pollution emitted by stationary sources in the state each year
Earlier this year, EPA made a major policy change in how the agency evaluates stationary sources of hazardous air pollutants in a memorandum quietly issued without any warning or opportunity for public comment. This policy change was promptly challenged by California and two different coalitions of environmental and community groups (one suit was filed by California Communities Against Toxics, EDF, Environmental Integrity Project, NRDC, Ohio Citizen Action, and the Sierr...
CONTINUE READINGWildfires: Managing the Risks
How can we limit the spread of wildfires and save people and property?
Wildfires are already a serious problem, and climate change will only make the problem worse, as I’ve discussed in my two prior posts. Reducing carbon emissions can help keep the problem from growing, but we need to deal with the risks we’re already facing. That is going to require a portfolio of risk management strategies. We need to ramp up all of them. Land Use Controls. There are increasing numbers of people moving into the wild-land urban interface (WUI).Th...
CONTINUE READINGNegative Emissions Technologies in the New Report on Limiting Global Warming
The new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on 1.5°C warming relies heavily on negative emissions technologies.
Last week, I described how the scenarios expected to keep global warming within the 2°C target, which was internationally endorsed in the Paris Agreement, had to assume the use of negative emissions technologies at very large scales. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international assessment body, downplayed this essential fact in its most recent major report, and mainstream news reports likewise did so. Yet negative emissions technologies at t...
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