CEQA thresholds of significance for greenhouse gas emissions: a strange but good process
Way back in the old days, before 2006 and AB 32 (California's landmark law limiting greenhouse gas emissions statewide), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was the critical tool to limit greenhouse gas emissions from projects around the state. CEQA is the law that requires state and local agencies to assess the significant environmental impacts of their actions and mitigate where feasible. Those actions include granting permits to real estate projects, a...
CONTINUE READINGOverall impressions of COP/MOP: World Governance for the Climate-as-Artifact
By Jed Ela, UCLA Law delegation -- part of a series of posts on COP 15 from Copenhagen: Deep in the bowels of COP15, in a temporary, metal-walled conference room nestled like a shipping container into a vast temporary hangar housing national delegation offices, a presenter from Google is apologizing. The Google team has lured fifteen busy NGO leaders away from lobbying delegates for a preview of climate-related technologies, and time’s a-wasting as they struggle to ho...
CONTINUE READINGAddressing Climate Change: Is there a special role for the private sector?
By Bianca Zambao da Silva, UCLA Law COP 15 delegation -- one in a series of posts from Copenhagen Since the first day of this COP, I have been on a waiting list to attend a tour of an offshore wind power farm, hosted by an initiative promoting wind power during the conference. The tour is part of a series of parallel initiatives encouraging everything from the adoption of clean energy sources to the exaltation of a vegetarian diet. In all of them there is an evident ...
CONTINUE READINGU.S. single track proposal sounds a lot like WTO ‘single undertaking’
By Jesse Swanhuyser -- One in a series of posts from the UCLA delegation at COP 15, Copenhagen It appears the global North is once again seeking a compromise deal with the South, based on a promise that they can deliver political support at home. The developing world is bringing experience from WTO negotiations into the climate arena and are thus far resolute that the North prove their commitment by acting first. During WTO negotiations in the early 1990s, the U.S. ...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia publishes new report on adapting to climate change impacts; is anyone paying attention?
All eyes are on the COP-15 proceedings in Copenhagen, and specifically on the prospects for greenhouse gas reductions emerging from the meeting. At the same time, we need to plan to adapt to some measure of climate change impacts, some of which are unavoidable regardless of our success at reducing GHG emissions, and to build resilience to those impacts. This aspect of the problem and solution is getting comparatively little attention from the media or from advocate...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Sustainable Technology Policy Program Receives Grant for Alternatives Assessment
The Sustainable Technology Policy Program, an interdisciplinary project of UCLA School of Law and the UCLA School of Public Health, has received a research grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research Program to study safer alternatives to the use of lead in industrial and consumer products and processes. The grant, in the amount of $400,000, will fund the 2 ½ year study "Deploying Safer Alternatives through Public Health Law." UCLA School ...
CONTINUE READINGA Rift Appears Within the G77 + China, Derailing the COP & CMP – But Not the Real Work
by Dustin Maghamfar, UCLA Law delegation — one in a series of posts from COP 15 in Copenhagen: Before preparing for this trip to Copenhagen, I conceived of UN international negotiations as massive plenary sessions where countries debate various proposals in an open forum. While I think this is a somewhat commonly held perception, the reality differs significantly – but not always. At a typical plenary session, party delegates give prepared statements (called “...
CONTINUE READINGOp-ed on local renewable energy production
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and I authored an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle today that outlines steps California can take to boost significant renewable energy production, such as from wind and solar resources, from our large rooftops, highway land, aqueduct infrastructure, and other big spaces close to consumers. These recommendations were informed by a UCLA/UC Berkeley/Attorney General's Office workshop that we held at Berkeley in June (I blogged ...
CONTINUE READINGEarly endangerment finding fallout
As Dan discussed here, on Monday EPA finalized its finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. The new rule won't be effective until 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, but it is already generating spin and promises of litigation. Even before the final finding was issued, the Center for Biological Diversity had petitioned EPA to set a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for CO2 at 350 ppm. CBD has also posted a working...
CONTINUE READING“Oil and politics mix well, but I’m not sure if oil and science mix well”
By Alexa Engelman, UCLA Law delegation -- one in a series of posts from COP 15 in Copenhagen: "Oil and politics mix well, but I'm not sure if oil and science mix well." So stated IPPC Chair Rajendra Pachauri when asked by reporters in a session at the Bella Center Tuesday morning about the hacked emails from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia. With the worldwide media frenzy around the so-called “ClimateGate,” many (including those on legal ...
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