Region: International
What Is A “Sustainable Battery”?
CLEE’s Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries releases a 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision
As the market for the electric buses, cars, trucks, and trains that help curb the climate crisis continues to grow globally, the battery supply chain faces increased scrutiny. Minerals like lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt are too often mined and processed in ways that contribute to harming communities and ecosystems, while the batteries often face …
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CONTINUE READINGOur Mission: Keeping Hope Alive
If you read Legal Planet, you know the work of the environmental law centers at Berkeley and UCLA is critical. Now is the time to support it.
The Trump Administration is planning a tsunami of anti-environmental actions.. States like California will be the best hope for making progress in the next four years. Keeping the torch burning — helping California succeed — will be challenging. So will fending off hostile actions from Washington. Our centers at Berkeley and UCLA are at the heart of this work.
CONTINUE READINGOn Carbon Pricing and Mass Climate Movements
Neither carbon pricing nor a mass climate movement can drive effective climate policy on their own
This is the fourth in a series of posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. What lessons can we draw from this analysis for key climate policy debates? Here, I will focus on two key lessons, first for carbon pricing, and second for the use of …
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CONTINUE READINGStep-by-Step: The Role of Sequencing in Effective Climate Policy
The key to climate policy is to start by supporting investments in new technologies that produce both innovation and political change
This is the third in a series of posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. How might sequencing work in climate policy? And why is it important? I’ll explore these questions by walking through the most important stage of climate policy – initiating action on climate change. The initial steps of …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Multiple Goals of Climate Policy
Effective climate policy requires consideration of efficiency, equity, technological innovation, carbon reductions and political feasibility
This is the second in a series of posts. The first post is here. When people think about climate policy, they probably think that the goal of climate policy is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, the ultimate goal of climate policy is to reduce emissions, eventually getting us to an economy that is …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Difficult Politics of Climate Change
How can we enact policy that is effective, resilient, and expands its ambition over time?
Climate change is a difficult problem to solve, politically. The costs of addressing climate change are born by current generations, but the benefits accrue to many generations to come. Addressing climate change might require people today to make significant sacrifices to benefit people around the world, as well as future generations. There are significant, powerful …
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CONTINUE READINGSix Things to Know about Rights of Nature
More than 500 Rights of Nature laws and policies have been passed globally. Here’s how to make sense of this nascent movement — or movements.
This Fall, I have been co-teaching a course on Rights of Nature with the historian Jill Lepore. This is the first time either of us have taught the subject and it has proven a wonderful opportunity to explore with our students this emerging movement — one that some have praised as “A Legal Revolution That …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat’s at Stake in the ICJ Hearings
Representational sovereignty, Indigenous rights, and ecocide are all key to the climate obligations of states, write guest contributors Mollie Cueva-Dabkoski, Julia Phượng Nguyễn, and Molly-Mae Whitmey.
A new chapter of global climate accountability has hopefully begun, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prepares to issue an advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. Hearings for that opinion began today with over 100 countries and other parties presenting over two weeks. At the request of the U.N. …
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CONTINUE READINGOne Bright Spot to COP29 in Baku
The outcome of this year’s U.N. climate conference was depressing. But there was some notable news regarding global methane emissions commitments.
Some have described the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku as “challenging,” “ineffective,” and “disappointing.” On the one hand, global greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, and the temperature for 2023 is the highest ever recorded. On the other hand, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat’s Making this COP Especially Difficult?
Notes from COP29 in Baku, where the subject of real money, U.S. politics, and other tricky factors are converging.
My UCLA colleagues Ted Parson, JP Escudero and I just returned from Baku. Most of our work there related to side talks on advancing methane regulation (and our UCLA project on that topic), but we also got a sense of how the central negotiations were unfolding. As the New York Times and others are reporting, …
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