Paris agreement
Seven Months to Election Day (and Counting)
You may have forgotten, but the clock is still ticking.
You may not have been focused on this, but there will be a Presidential election seven months from today. The stakes are enormous for environmental law. In fact, those stakes can be measured in megatons of carbon. There’s no question about Trump’s approach to environmental regulation. As of the beginning of this year, ninety-five environmental rollbacks …
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CONTINUE READINGCOP25 in Context, or “How Bad is It?”
Reflections on Stopping Speeding Locomotives and Falling Off Cliffs
In my last post, I sketched a few of the many intense tensions and contradictions swirling around this year’s Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). In this post, I’ll try to make some sense of the biggest tension of all, one that folks working on climate are …
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CONTINUE READINGDisorientation, Rage, Despair – and Hope? The Contradictions of COP25
Personal Notes on the Conference of the Parties in Madrid
As you’ve seen from several recent posts (and more to come), the UCLA Law Emmett Institute has had an observer delegation – as we do every few years – at the 25th annual Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). I’ve been there with faculty colleagues Cara Horowitz and …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Tom Callahan: The Fallacy of Climate Choice
Promoting Positive Climate Choices at Every Level of Decision-making
One of the undercurrents of the negotiations at COP 25 in Madrid is the lack of leadership from the United States government after the decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. While the formal decision-making process here only involves nations that are party to the agreement, there are numerous NGOs, business groups and other …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Idalmis Vaquero: Women of Color Leading Climate Justice at COP 25
Young Advocates Call For More Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Negotiations
Four years after the Paris Agreement was adopted by member countries of the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change, countries are still working out the details on how they will reduce their carbon emissions. This year the Conference of the Parties (COP) 25 is taking place in Madrid, Spain under the leadership of …
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CONTINUE READINGYouth Energy at Madrid COP
Report from the UCLA Law delegation
Along with my UCLA Law colleagues Ted Parson, Alex Wang, and Siyi Shen, I’m in Madrid with three intrepid law students for the annual conference of the major international treaty addressing climate change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. As these conferences go, this iteration was expected to be pretty sleepy. The conference remains …
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CONTINUE READINGThings to Be Thankful For
Despite the Trump Administration’s efforts, there are rays of hope.
Three years into the Trump Administration, we’re now accustomed to waking up every morning to learn about a new attack on the environment. But there are also some things to be thankful for. Here’s how I started a similar post in 2017, just a year after the 2016 election: “Overall, it’s been a pretty lousy …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Bloggers Will Martin and Michael P. Vandenbergh: Can Private Environmental Governance Address Nationalism’s Threat To International Environmental Law?
As Some Nations Retreat From Internationalist Approaches to Transnational Environmental Challenges, Corporate Actions May Play a Larger Role
The withdrawal by Japan from the International Whaling Convention and its related Commission in December 2018 and the on-off threat by the new leader of Brazil to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are the latest signals that International Environmental Law (“IEL”) is under siege. The move by Japan and the possible withdrawal …
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do Dems Think about Climate Policy?
The candidates are united on some issues, but divided or equivocal on others.
Yesterday, the Washington Post published a survey of the Democratic candidates’ positions on climate change. The differences between candidates probably don’t have a lot of immediate policy relevance, given the political and legal constraints on what a new president could accomplish. But they are very revealing about the direction of the Democratic Party today. The …
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CONTINUE READINGHR 9: The First Climate Bill to Pass the House In a Decade
What you need to know about the bill.
Last Thursday, for the first time in a decade, the House of Representatives passed a climate change bill. HR 9, the Climate Action Now Act, passed on a vote of 231-190. The heart of HR 9 is section 3, which blocks the use of any federal funds to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Section 4 …
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