There is a startling lack of global regulation of the marine ornamental trade. The only international legal framework that governs the trade of marine ornamentals is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Requirements under Appendix II help prevent traded species from reaching the point where they need stricter protections, while Appendix III targets species that range countries want help controlling in international trade. Yet both of these appendices are poorly equipped to help regulate the marine aquarium trade.

In China, the year 2024 witnessed further evolution of environmental protection and development of legislation and rulemaking. This mainly included adoption of the Energy Law of the People’s Republic of China, revision of the Mineral Resources Law of the People’s Republic of China, and adoption of a series of administrative regulations. This Comment summarizes some of the year’s major developments.

The negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty (GPT) that collapsed on December 2, 2024, were meant to be a step toward a plastics future informed by sustainable development principles. Given that no agreement has yet been reached, this Comment will discuss two broad issues that future GPT negotiating sessions must confront to produce an effective plastic life-cycle governance instrument. Part I reviews the fragmentation in current plastic waste-related governance instruments and institutions, and describes opportunities for the GPT to find synergies with those instruments.

In 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of nations with respect to the mounting damage caused by climate change. This ruling will definitively restate applicable international law, provide a basis for new global policy decisions within the U.N. General Assembly, and provide a predicate for new lawsuits in national courts. To be effective, remedies for breaching a government’s duties to avert climate change will require a “collective remedy,” not merely financial compensation.

President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order No. 14008 created a new federal legal concept of “energy communities.” The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) further defined this term, with an emphasis on historical dependence on fossil energy industries. This Article summarizes and assesses current law for “energy communities” in the United States, with an emphasis on recent developments and early implementation efforts.

As in many other countries, climate change is driving new and complex litigation throughout India. These cases deal with a wide scope of issues, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, renewable energy development, and air pollution, among other topics. Five features related to India’s climate and energy policies, its judicial structure, and a recent Supreme Court decision make it likely that the courts will continue to play a significant role in shaping the country’s response to climate change.

Local opposition to siting of wind and solar energy projects stands to threaten the renewable energy transition in New York State. The state government has sought to quell this opposition by statutorily requiring developers to provide community benefits as a condition of their permits. One way these benefits are secured is through host community agreements (HCAs), with the developer typically agreeing to make payments to the municipality from project revenue in exchange for the municipality promising not to oppose the project during the state permitting process.

Interconnection queues across the United States prevent renewable energy projects from connecting to the grid because of their years-long backlog. Current procedures are increasing the number of projects that withdraw from the queue and the time it takes for renewable projects to seek approval. This Article examines the recent reforms taken by two regional grid operators, the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.

On January 26, 2024, the Biden Administration announced a pause on pending decisions on permits to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-free trade agreement countries until the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) updates underlying analyses for the authorizations. The United States is the largest global exporter of LNG, and its exports have rapidly grown over recent years. The pause presents an opportunity to review impacts of increased LNG export, including climate consequences, environmental justice harms, and more.

What this Comment found so compelling in Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help was the human factor—the authors could have written the same article about what is going on in solar, biodigesters, hydro projects, or trash-to-energy projects. There is a good amount of research that could be done as to why this has cropped up recently. The human stories in the article are heartbreaking—this issue is dividing families, and people are being effectively excommunicated from their churches because of what side they are on.