Region: International
China at the Global Climate Action Summit
Climate Action from the World’s Largest Emitter
Governor Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit came to a close this past Friday in San Francisco. A large delegation of Chinese government officials, researchers, business leaders and civil society representatives were on hand for the proceedings. Xie Zhenhua, China’s special representative on climate change, reaffirmed China’s commitment to action on climate change. While Xie had …
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CONTINUE READINGReflections from Climate Conference No. 2: The Global Climate Action Summit
Similarly inspiring, with an added dollop of controversy
Last week’s Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco was at once exciting, inspiring, thought-provoking, and controversial. While I was reinvigorated to push my career in climate change and environmental law and policy, it also forced me to critically think about the nuances in climate change policymaking. As promised, here is an overview of my …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Public Trust Doctrine as an Anti-Corruption Weapon
Everything Old Is New Again
As Rick noted a couple of weeks ago, the California Court of Appeal has recently decided that the public trust doctrine applies to groundwater resources — a long overdue holding that flows (so to speak) pretty much directly from the landmark Mono Lake decision that applied the PTD to surface water. (Since surface and groundwater …
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CONTINUE READINGHarnessing The “3 Revolutions” In Transportation To Achieve Climate Goals
Global Climate Action Summit event in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 11th, 2-5:30pm, reception to follow
Next week leaders from around the world will be in San Francisco for the Governor Brown-convened Global Climate Action Summit. The gathering is designed to showcase climate progress globally and help leaders share best practices and ideas on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the summit, many nonprofits, businesses and universities are hosting affiliate …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Water Next Time — And This
Kerala Floods Signal That Climate Change Is Here. Now.
With the daily freak show of American politics, you might be forgiven for not noticing one of the most horrific disasters in years: the devastating floods in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala, at the tip of the subcontinent. More than 500 people have died, thousands of homes have been inundated, and more than 1.5 …
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CONTINUE READINGFollow the Money
Investment in the World Energy System Still Dominated by Fossil Fuels
Not that money. Not the hush money, the payoffs, the tax and banking fraud. And not the dark money seeking to influence our environmental, climate, and clean energy policies. Nope, I am talking about the actual money invested in the world energy system last year. Granted, this may not be as interesting to many readers …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump Administration Announces Revisions of NAFTA with Strengthened Environmental Provisions
Revised Environmental Obligations in Preliminary Agreement With Mexico Appear to Track Environmental Chapter of Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has just announced that it reached preliminary agreement with Mexico for a renegotiated NAFTA. The 24-year old trade agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. was a major topic during the 2016 presidential campaign and has been a centerpiece of USTR activity in the Trump administration. The …
CONTINUE READINGGreen Groups and Corporate Sustainability
Environmental NGOs sometimes partner with business, sometimes administer “tough love.”
Much of what environmental groups do involves the government: lobbying Congress, participating in rulemakings, and suing when all else fails. But there is also an interesting story to be told of how these groups relate to the corporate world. Sometimes they play the good cop, forming partnership with companies; sometimes the bad cop, trashing the …
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CONTINUE READINGResponsibility for Historic Harm
Tort law embodies our society’s view of fairness. What does teach us about climate change?
Is it fair to hold companies responsible for past emissions, even if they didn’t know at the time the emissions were harmful? Shouldn’t it be a defense that they didn’t appreciate the risk at the time?Not if tort law is any guide. Tort law imposes liability for ongoing harm even though a company did not …
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CONTINUE READINGScenarios
We live in an uncertain world. Scenario planning can help.
When Shell Oil produced a sophisticated scenario of the path to a carbon neutral world in 2070, a lot people took notice. Shell concluded that the “relevant transformations in the energy and natural systems require concurrent climate policy action and the deployment of disruptive new technologies at mass scale within government policy environments that strongly …
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