International Environmental Law
Climate Engineering: National Academy Committee recommends starting research (with limits)
An NAS report on controversial engineered responses to climate change gets all the big things right, but avoids the hardest questions
Earlier this week, the National Research Council Committee on Geoengineering Climate released two reports, “Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration” and “Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth.” Requested and funded by several US federal departments – NASA, NOAA, DOE, and the cutely labeled “U.S. Intelligence Community” – this report is the first …
CONTINUE READINGLooking Back at COP20: How Should We Feel?
The Lima Accord lets countries name their own price to address climate change. But that doesn’t mean it failed.
As you’ve probably heard by now, this year’s UN climate change conference has produced an agreement, the “Lima Accord.” The Accord invites each of the nearly 200 negotiating countries to develop an “intended nationally determined contribution” (INDC) to reduce its GHG emissions. INDCs represent some step forward from each country–in the words of the Accord, “a progression …
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CONTINUE READINGGiving Indigenous Peoples a Voice at COP20
Observations from the Lima UN Climate Conference – by Sarah Kozal
This post is by Sarah Kozal, UCLA School of Law Class of 2016, who participated in the Lima COP last week as part of UCLA’s delegation. One surprise of COP20 has been the large presence of indigenous peoples’ issues and voices. In particular, many of the side events at the conference have focused not only …
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CONTINUE READINGProgress at the UN?
A view from the Lima climate COP
The annual Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened this week in Lima, Peru, drawing delegates from around the world, including a few from UCLA Law. I am in Lima along with Legal Planet blogger Jesse Lueders and three students from our UCLA Environmental Law Clinic, Sarah Kozal ’16, Jacob …
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CONTINUE READINGMore Thoughts on the US-China Climate Announcement
Ann Carlson and I talk with the New York Times on US politics, Chinese implementation, and the potential impact on India.
Ann Carlson and I talked with Edward Wong from the New York Times last week about the US-China Climate Announcement. We repost the Q&A here. From Edward Wong, NYT: The biggest commitments to come out of President Obama’s recent visit to China involved climate change policy. The leaders of the two nations stood beside each …
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CONTINUE READINGA Ray of Hope [Breaking News]
President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a major deal on climate change this morning. As summarized by the Washington Post, China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged in the far-reaching agreement to cap its rapidly growing carbon emissions by 2030, or earlier if possible. It also set a daunting goal of …
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CONTINUE READINGHuman Fingerprints on Australia’s Record Heatwave
Australia — or at least Australia’s current government — downplays the danger of climate change. But, as a famous physicist once said, “reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” Last summer in Australia (corresponding to the winter months up here) broke many, many records. it was the hottest summer on record, …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo Voices from the UN Climate Summit Today
A President and a poet on our climate future
If you want a sense of the tone of today’s UN climate summit in NY, check out the remarks by President Obama (pasted below in full) and this remarkable poem, composed and read to the General Assembly today by Kathy Jenil Kajiner of the Marshall Islands. Ms. Kajiner was selected as a key speaker from …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Responsible Are Americans for China’s Pollution Problem?
An online conversation from several perspectives
Yesterday, I participated in an online conversation at Chinafile.com on the question of “How Responsible Are Americans For China’s Pollution Problem?” I post the lead comment by David Vance Wagner of the International Council on Clean Transportation along with my response. Elizabeth Economy from the Council on Foreign Relations and Isabel Hilton of Chinadialogue.net (among …
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CONTINUE READINGNewsflash: Not All Climate Stories are Dismal, Scientists Actually Try to Discover the Truth
Methane Leaks Not Caused by Human-induced Climate Change,
NPR aired a story this week about what scientists thought, in 2008, were ominous signs of a warming ocean. Churning bubbles of methane — a very potent greenhouse gas — were pouring out of the ocean floor in Arctic Norway. Scientists theorized that as the globe and the oceans warmed, the methane trapped in the …
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