The Riddle of the Maldives
The Maldives is one of the nations most vulnerable to rising sea levels. So, why is climate change not a topic of discussion here?
It was the site for one of the most iconic climate policy photos. In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate negotiations in 2009, President Mohamed Nasheed held a cabinet meeting in scuba gear 20 feet underwater to show what awaited the low-lying island nation of the Maldives if serious action were not taken to reduce greenhouse gases. Nasheed followed up with a pledge that the Maldives would be the first carbon neutral country by 2020. The photo went viral and made ...
CONTINUE READINGCommunity Benefits Agreements (CBAs) and Offshore Wind
Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) can provide tools for California communities negotiating offshore wind development impacts
Offshore wind is one of many renewable industries taking off in California as the state accelerates infrastructure investment and development to meet its climate targets. The California Energy Commission has adopted planning goals of 2-5 GW of offshore wind (OSW) by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045. Other state goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and to 85 percent below 1990 levels by 2045, along with statewide carbon neutrality ...
CONTINUE READINGMeasuring Tropical Forests and Deforestation from Space
Remote sensing is one important tool in the toolbox of forest governance for monitoring, measuring, and reducing deforestation
In a world where a swipe on a smart phone enables navigation from one part of the globe to another, many technology companies, investors, environmental organizations, community groups, and policymakers are looking to remote sensing data and platforms to increase transparency, accuracy, speed of decision-making, and reduce costs of monitoring land-based activities at scale. Advancements in these platforms are aiding in improved detection of changes deforestation rates ...
CONTINUE READINGMaking Building Decarbonization Work for LA Renters
A new UCLA report recommends policies to green existing buildings in a way that protects and supports residential tenants.
Los Angeles’ ambitious “Green New Deal” calls for, among other things, eliminating or offsetting building emissions and reducing building energy use by 44%, both by 2050. This is an impressive and ambitious target, and while the city has begun restricting some emissions from new buildings, it is still figuring out how to tackle the far more difficult task of reducing the emissions and energy use of existing buildings. The latest policy brief from the Emmett ...
CONTINUE READINGCEQ and Permitting Reform
The enactment of NEPA 2.0 presents a golden opportunity for the agency.
In the recent debt ceiling law, Congress extensively revamped NEPA, the law governing environmental impact statements. An obscure White House agency, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), will have the first opportunity to shape the interpretation of the new language. Much of the language in the new law is poorly drafted or vague, making CEQ’s role all the more important. This gives CEQ the opportunity to reform permitting for infrastructure projects while reta...
CONTINUE READINGThe Drafting Puzzles of NEPA 2.0
In an effort to streamline NEPA, Congress may only have made parts of it incomprehensible.
Shortly after Biden signed the new NEPA rewrite as part of the debt ceiling law, I wrote a blog post about a major drafting glitch at the heart of the new provisions. Today, I’d like to follow up with more examples. This poor drafting could really hobble implementation of the new provisions. We live in the era of textualism, meaning that courts focus intensely on the details of statutory language, rather than trying to implement congressional intent. As a result...
CONTINUE READINGFunding Public Transit Is Crucial for California’s Climate Goals
Transit networks need more--not less--support for state to reach 2045 carbon neutrality
It has been widely reported in recent weeks that California’s public transit systems are seeking billions of dollars in support from the state budget to avoid the fiscal cliff they are facing due to slow ridership recovery following the pandemic and shifts in work commute patterns. Without this support, the agencies will need to begin service cuts that will erode ridership further, leading to a potential ridership/revenue/service death spiral. Legislative leaders offer...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Clinic Files Amicus Brief Seeking Review of Decision in Berkeley Gas Case
The Environmental Law Clinic joins other local, state, and federal governments, as well as NGOs, in urging the Ninth Circuit to take a second look at the case.
Yesterday, the UCLA Environmental Law Clinic filed a brief in the California Restaurant Association v. Berkeley case on behalf of seven law professors: our own William Boyd, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Jim Rossi at Vanderbilt, David Spence at UT Austin, Shelley Welton at UPenn, and Hannah Wiseman at Penn State. (The same group that weighed in on this case last year, when it was first heard by the Ninth Circuit.) The professors are amici curiae, meani...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia must move more quickly to decarbonize existing residential buildings
New Report recommends scaling California’s Go Green financing program faster, changing program design and implementation
California has set ambitious climate goals, which include reducing state greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 40 percent by 2030 and reducing GHGs 85 percent (and achieving statewide carbon neutrality) by 2045. Amongst all the sectors state leaders seek to address, existing buildings (which are responsible for over 10 percent of state emissions), and especially existing residential structures, are among the most difficult to decarbonize. Although households may end up paying l...
CONTINUE READINGThe IRA’s Implicit Cost of Carbon
Here’s a simple way to think about a hard problem.
The social cost of carbon is important in many regulatory decisions made by the executive branch. It basically measures the benefit of cutting one ton of carbon emissions. Figuring out the cost of carbon based on an analysis of climate impacts is very tricky. However, there’s another way to think about the problem: We might ask instead what social cost of carbon is reflected in current law. Judging by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the answer seems to be at least...
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