Climate Change
Straws in the Wind
Businesses have intensified public support for climate action. That could presage a major shift in climate politics.
In the past few weeks, there’s been a notable growth of business support for climate action. A letter from the CEOs of 300 hundred major companies called for a 50% cut from 2005 carbon emissions by 2030. The companies ranged from the utilities to tobacco to investment management. Google, McDonalds, Walmart, and Philip Morris were …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributors Leeza Arbatman, Michael Cohen, and Shawna Strecker: New California Bills Provide Pathway for Local Wildfire Risk Reduction in Southern California
SB 85 and SB 63 create opportunities for wildfire prevention strategies proposed by UCLA California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic
We are students in UCLA Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, a course in which students work with legislative staff in the California State Legislature to advance environmental policy goals. In Fall 2020, working with staff for State Senator Henry Stern, we developed recommendations for local government efforts to manage wildfire risk. Now, new …
CONTINUE READINGGates on Climate
A guide to updating the global operating system.
The original Microsoft operating system was called QDOS, for Quick and Dirty Operating System. Bill Gates’s new book might well have been called “A Quick and Dirty Guide to Climate Policy.” The book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, provides a concise overview of climate policy, detailing the threat of the climate crisis and a …
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CONTINUE READINGDesigning Policy to Advance Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide
Direct air capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide will be central to climate policy this century, but how can we advance it through policy?
It is becoming increasingly likely that if the world is to avoid warming beyond 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius that we will have to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, rather only rapidly decarbonizing global economies. Without carbon dioxide removal, the rate of decarbonization that would be required to meet a 1.5 or 2 …
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CONTINUE READINGThe US National Academies on Solar Geoengineering Research and Governance
Four Emmett Institute scholars react to an important new report
A few of us are part of the Emmett Institute’s Geoengineering Governance Project, where we study the legal and policy issues presented by solar geoengineering and carbon dioxide removal technologies. On the former set of technologies—that is, reflecting a little incoming sunlight to cool the Earth and temporarily counteract heating from greenhouse gases—the US National …
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CONTINUE READINGAppeals Court Nixes NYC Climate Lawsuit
With a clever if contrived argument, the Second Circuit tries to eliminate climate change litigation.
On Friday, the Second Circuit issued an important decision in a lawsuit against the oil industry. New York City had sued the oil companies for harms relating to climate change. The appeals court ordered the case dismissed, on the ground that any harm relating to fossil fuel is exclusively regulated by the Clean Air Act. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Green MAGA-Deal Goes Public!
It’s something no one expected, and for good reason.
There were gasps of astonishment when Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Bernie Sanders took the stage together. The gasps turned into stunned silence as Trump began to speak. The trio were there, Trump said, to announce something HUGE, something no one ever expected: the world’s biggest plan for climate action. Trump began by denouncing the …
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CONTINUE READINGSolar Geoengineering and Public Engagement Trolling
A first test of a long-planned outdoor solar geoengineering experiment has been delayed–again. Why?
It has been a busy week in solar geoengineering. Last week, the US National Academies released a report that offers recommendations for a research program and for governance of research. (A few of us will post our thoughts on the report here soon.) Here I discuss developments regarding outdoor solar geoengineering experiments, of which there have …
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CONTINUE READINGDo regulators and utility managers have irreconcilable differences or mutual goals?
By Alida Cantor, Luke Sherman, Anita Milman, and Mike Kiparsky
Do regulators and utility managers have irreconcilable differences or mutual goals? By Alida Cantor, Luke Sherman, Anita Milman, and Mike Kiparsky. What do climate change, aging infrastructure, and urban population growth have in common? They all pose major challenges – especially for water infrastructure in the United States. And many utilities are having a …
CONTINUE READINGBiden’s Dilemma: Limiting Carbon from Existing Power Plants
It’s not that the policy choices are that hard. It’s the 6-3 Supreme Court.
Coal- and gas-fired power plants are a major source of U.S. carbon emissions. The Obama Administration devised a perfectly sensible, moderate policy to cut those emissions. The Trump Administration replaced it with a ridiculous token policy. The D.C. Circuit appeals court tossed that out. Now what? It wouldn’t be hard to redo the Obama policy …
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