Environmentally conscious financiers are increasingly pursuing green ventures, especially through green bonds and stocks, social investing, and social benefit corporations. On September 21, 2021, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts for its Environmental Law and Finance Series that explored the regulatory process for green bonds and stocks, best practices for advising stakeholders and clients interested in green bonds, and the opportunities and challenges of leveraging green financial tools to combat climate change.

Over the last few decades, 30 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted renewable portfolio standard (RPS) programs. These programs vary substantially, with most states having a restriction or preference with respect to whether renewables are located in-state or in-region. This Article takes a cross-disciplinary approach to analyzing these programs: first, by looking at how geographic limitations may run afoul of the dormant Commerce Clause (DCC); and second, by considering empirical research on how geographic provisions affect RPS programs’ cost-effectiveness.

In July 2021, the European Commission published a proposal for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), part of a wider package of laws aimed at implementing the European Union (EU) Green Deal. The exact design of the CBAM is in flux, and priorities will have to be set. The chief concern is the compatibility of a CBAM with the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This Article explores whether and how the various CBAM design options under consideration can be reconciled with WTO requirements, focusing on a possible import border adjustment scheme.

In 2009, when carbon dioxide (CO2) levels were at 387.43 parts per million, the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org submitted a citizen petition calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take steps necessary to institute a national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under §§108-110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). For 12 years, the petition was simply ignored. Then, the day President Donald Trump left office, outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler issued a letter denying the petition.

Scientific communities and policy experts argue that marine protected areas (MPAs) will increase the potential of marine ecosystems to tackle climate change impacts. Yet to date, there has been little legal scholarship about how to design, manage, and implement climate-resilient MPAs. This Article underscores the importance of considering climate change in the design, planning, and implementation of MPAs, and identifies mechanisms for incorporating climate change elements into MPAs.

The appropriate use of science in policymaking depends upon integrity in scientific research and in the ways in which that research is communicated and applied throughout the policymaking process. On May 22, 2019, the University of California, Irvine School of Law’s Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources (CLEANR) and the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) convened a roundtable that brought together leading scientists, scholars, advocates, and policymakers to explore potential safeguards to protect scientific research and its use in feder

This Article focuses on an area of rapidly evolving jurisprudence—climate liability litigation. It examines in depth the state attorney general’s complaint filed in Rhode Island v. Chevron Corp. in 2018, alleging various state-law tort claims. It explores the intensely sustained legal battles taking place between states and fossil fuel companies over whether federal courts or state courts should have jurisdiction, which in many respects is the “ballgame issue” for both plaintiffs and defendants.

This Article discusses the Trump Administration’s main actions to undermine the role of science in public policy and the consequences for cost-benefit analysis involving climate change policies. It analyzes the specific attacks on science and their impact on relevant policies, namely, the rollbacks of the Clean Water Rule, the pesticides ban, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Power Plan, as well as modification of the National Environmental Policy Act and regulations promoting fuel efficiency, and the flexibilization of environmental enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As in prior years, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 contains a variety of provisions setting U.S. Department of Defense priorities for energy, environmental, and natural resource issues. These include measures that represent some degree of consensus on these often-politicized topics.

People, businesses, cities, and states are increasingly burdened by extreme weather events. Drought, heat, wildfires, precipitation, hurricanes, and tornadoes are becoming more intense. Most analysts point toward an emerging trend: as the earth warms, extreme weather events are becoming more costly and more deadly, though some raise lingering uncertainties about linking climate change to specific types of weather or specific events.