Law Columbia

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

In 2022, the amount of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions nationwide was over one billion tons , making Japan the 5 th largest GHG emitter in the world. In February 2023, the Tokyo District Court found that the Notice of Finalization, which had been issued through a simplified permitting procedure, was lawful. Kobe Steel Ltd.,

2025

Circle of Blue

JUNE 24, 2025

The new direction is driven by a self-preservation instinct – “a policy revolt,” Matthews said – among the countries who formerly sat the bench as the world’s biggest carbon polluters debated the boundaries of greenhouse gas emission limits. So the organizations and the financial systems and the laws and policies and global agreements.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

DECEMBER 19, 2024

laws governing atmospheric methane removal (AMR) via soil amendments. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, with each ton of methane emitted trapping approximately 80 times more heat in the earths atmosphere than a ton of carbon dioxide over a 20-year timescale. law, especially federal environmental law.

Atmosphere

Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE — Ecojustice and Environmental Defence have uncovered that greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s exported oil, gas, and coal ballooned to record levels in 2023.

Fossil Fuels

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 16, 2024

In both cases, the DOJ sided with local governments, arguing that their claims against fossil fuel companies for misleading the public about climate harms should proceed under state law. Shell case, for instance, the Dutch courts upheld the ruling that Shell must act to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

2025

Law Columbia

JULY 15, 2025

Regarding the appropriate target, the IACtHR highlighted the international consensus in the Paris Agreement on a temperature increase of no more than 1.5 °C Actions that jeopardize the future of life on Earth should be prohibited by law. debt, poverty, inequality), with the long-term goal of being carbon neutral.

Climate Change

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

On the one hand, global greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, and the temperature for 2023 is the highest ever recorded. from the Paris Agreement again. Photo: Cara Horowitz Some have described the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku as “challenging,” “ineffective,” and “disappointing.”

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

This blog post was authored by 2024 Sabin Center Summer Intern, Arpana Giritharan, with input and supervision from Johanna Lovecchio, Director of Program Design for Climate Action and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Climate School, and Romany Webb, Deputy Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

Carbon Dioxide

Circle of Blue

JULY 9, 2025

These trends converged in Paris in 2015 when 195 countries signed a legally binding international treaty on climate change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and attempt to keep global temperatures from rising to more dangerous levels. In the United States, coal production actually did peak in 2008 at 1.2 India followed.

Clean Energy

Law Columbia

JANUARY 24, 2025

It does not seek to discuss every aspect of Trumps EOs, nor to answer every question about the lawfulness of various provisions, nor to set out the exact mechanics for whats to come. For obligated funds those which are the subject of a signed grant agreement there is little context to go on within the EOs text.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

MARCH 17, 2025

Only 13 of the 195 signatory countries to the Paris Agreement submitted new national plans for tackling climate change by the recent deadline. withdrawing from that agreement again. Meanwhile President Trump has begun the process of the U.S.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

JULY 29, 2025

It is a huge step forward,” UCLA Law Professor Kate Mackintosh told me in an email. Mackintosh is the Executive Director of the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe in The Netherlands where the World Court is also based. It could also have big impacts on refugee law as the number of climate refugees increases.

Fossil Fuels

Law Columbia

MARCH 11, 2025

Part 1 focused on discussions regarding applicable law, and the no-harm rule. Cameroon even urged the ICJ to confirm the existence of the right to a healthy environment as a customary international law norm. Germany argued that States fulfilling the Paris Agreement simultaneously fulfill their human rights obligations.

Climate Change

Legal Planet

JULY 30, 2025

It prioritizes communities’ self-empowerment and addresses the right of people to participate in decisions that affect them and to receive equal protection from our nation’s laws.” The term “ norm sustainers ” was first used to describe states and cities that pledged to uphold the Paris Agreement on Climate Change when Trump pulled the U.S.

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

AUGUST 8, 2025

Along with thousands of deaths, twelve months of war in Ukraine resulted in around 120 million tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – matching Belgium’s emissions over the same period. Military activities and armed conflicts are a growing climate liability. Hence, it is “due in times of peace and in times of war” (para.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 26, 2024

Our audience isnt just people who live and breathe climate law. On the other hand, if you’re an environmental law student and you miss most of the answers, you might want to hit the books again. The Supreme Court upheld EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases. A greenhouse gas, Acrylic Bicarbonate-32.

Law

Legal Planet

MAY 14, 2025

One more reason were not ready for COP30 is that only 21 countries 11% of the parties have put forward new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions through to 2035, as required by the Paris Agreement. So, with Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement yet again, will California Governor Gavin Newsom go to COP30?

Paris Agreement

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 20, 2022

In the study, we found that political power dynamics shape international negotiations, that the Paris Agreement temperature goal doesn’t fully account for the dangers of sea level rise, and that climate justice requires fully considering diverse views and experiences of climate change.

Sea Level

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 24, 2023

Heat-trapping emissions are continuing to rise while the gap between what is needed to keep Paris Agreement goals in reach and adapt to ongoing climate impacts is ever-widening. The Vanuatu-led effort, which was initiated several years ago by law students at the University of the South Pacific, is now coming to fruition.

Paris Agreement

Energy and Climate Law

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Until 2030 the EU shall emit 55 % less Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG), compared to 1990 levels. Technically this shall be included in an amendment to the proposed Climate Law. This change shall facilitate two long-term obligations: achieving a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and improving Europe`s contribution to the Paris Agreement.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

APRIL 13, 2023

A new wave of cases differs from traditional environmental lawsuits by highlighting the connections between preserving the Amazon and the climate, the grave risk of greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation, and the critical role of the forest as a major global carbon sink. candidate at Berkeley Law.

Climate Change

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 3, 2021

So for my last Climate Law and Policy class at UCLA Law this semester, I once again asked my students to tell me what they are thinking about the future of climate policy in light of today’s global circumstances, keeping in mind lessons we’ve learned through the semester. –Jay Parepally, JD 2023. . –Tom Hanrahan, JD 2023.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

JULY 22, 2025

In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to “strengthen the global response to climate change” by limiting the “increase in global average temperatures to well below 2 o C above pre-industrial levels,” and ideally to 1.5 agriculture and fossil fuel production), as well as from natural sources (e.g.,

Paris Agreement

Real Climate

AUGUST 17, 2022

With the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on Tuesday Aug 16, the most significant climate legislation in US federal history (so far) became law. Despite the odd name (and greatly overused TLA ), the IRA contains a huge number of elements, totalling roughly $350 billion of investment, in climate solutions over the next ten years.

Paris Agreement

Law and Environment

JANUARY 12, 2022

Each year since 1995, with the exception of 2020, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) has hosted a Conference of Parties (COP), where members of the UNFCCC negotiate issues relating to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other matters relating to climate change. first appeared on Law and the Environment.

Paris Agreement

Real Climate

NOVEMBER 11, 2023

A friend asked me if a discussion paper published on Statistics Norway’s website, ‘ To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions? ’, was purposely timed for the next climate summit ( COP28 ). I don’t know the answer to his question. But this discussion paper is problematic for sure.

Sea Level

Law Columbia

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

However, the Supreme Court found that the Spanish Government had complied with the Paris Agreement and the EU legislation. Background of Spanish Climate Policy In 2016, the EU ratified the Paris Agreement, which calls on Parties to submit their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years. compared to 2005.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

AUGUST 10, 2021

As in previous reports, this one also uses “Representative Concentration Pathways” (RCPs) that show how the world will respond to different trajectories for emissions of greenhouse gases. C goal of the Paris agreement. There is greater emphasis on regional impacts and extreme events. scenario would keep emissions under the 1.5

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

MARCH 29, 2023

The requests are pending at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR, see here for an initial analysis of the advisory opinion request). Both the science and law around climate change have progressed. But a lot has changed since then.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

MAY 8, 2024

Lawyers, bar associations, and law societies have an important but not fully recognized role to play in achieving the net zero goal in the Paris Agreement. Climate Change as an Increasingly Common Feature of Law Practice Climate change is no longer an issue of concern only to environmental and energy lawyers. In the U.S.,

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

There are several problems with this false dichotomy: Entrepreneurs behind private startups like Make Sunset are wildly different from the scientists and environmental law experts who study geoengineering. degree Celsius targets set by the Paris Agreement, what other policies are available? If we overshoot the 1.5

Fossil Fuels

Law Columbia

JULY 24, 2025

In the most significant development in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the ICJ outlined numerous obligations that could significantly shape the contours of international environmental law and global climate governance.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

MAY 22, 2024

On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered a long-awaited Advisory Opinion on climate change and international law. To facilitate discussion and the exchange of ideas, the Sabin Center’s Climate Law Blog and Verfassungsblog are partnering on a blog symposium on the ITLOS opinion.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

APRIL 24, 2023

Applicable Law to the ITLOS Advisory Opinion The applicable law for the ITLOS advisory proceedings is determined by Article 293 of UNCLOS. However, ITLOS is not responsible for implementing the UNFCCC or the Paris Agreement. These rules are, in effect, binding norms incorporated into UNCLOS.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

MAY 24, 2024

A long-standing conundrum of international environmental law is that the territorially-based, sectoral legal structures we have created to address environmental issues do not match the interconnected, interdependent nature of ecosystems. But even from early on, they were not the sole locus of international climate law.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

MAY 9, 2022

As of 2021, 30 emissions trading systems were in force globally, covering 16 – 17 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a compromise, California law (AB 398) has limited offsets to 4% of compliance obligations for the 2021-2025 period and capped the offsets without in-state benefits that can be utilized for compliance. .

Government

Law Columbia

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

The topic has steadily gained traction in international climate negotiations since then, with “loss and damage” first appearing in a negotiated text at COP13 in 2007 and later forming the “third pillar” of climate action in the Paris Agreement in 2015. and other major greenhouse gas emitters? and other developed nations.

Paris Agreement