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Legal Protection Gap: ‘Climate Refugees’
By Anxhela (Angela) Mile [*] There are currently no legal protections for ‘climate refugees.’ Additionally, a debate exists on whether to characterize those displaced by environmental degradation, climate change, and natural disasters as ‘climate refugees’ or ‘climate...
Utilizing Litigation to Propel Climate Action: A Comparison of Juliana & Urgenda
By Anxhela (Angela) Mile [*] Climate change is undeniably one of the most challenging and pressing issues of our time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) emphasized that there are approximately ten years to limit global warming to 1.5°C.[1] Without...
Take-Aways from an Advisory Opinion by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: How Does a Human Rights Forum Give Guidance to Global Environmental Protection?
Written by: Siyi Shen, Global Environmental Law Graduate Fellow On February 8, 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the IA Court) issued a groundbreaking advisory opinion (2018 Opinion) in response to a request by Columbia recognizing the right to a healthy...
Some Suggested Principles for Individual Carbon Offsets
I’ll confess up front that I am not a fan of offsets. Addressing climate change will require people in the developed world to live with a smaller carbon footprint. We need to redefine the Western ideal of the “good life” to substitute a vision with less energy...
Why Antarctica Matters to Us: Listening to Dr. Robin Bell
Written by: Siyi Shen, Global Environmental Law Graduate Fellow Pace Law was honored to have Dr. Robin Bell present the Annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law on October 24, 2018. Dr. Bell is the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research...
The Importance of Learning, and Reducing, Your Carbon Footprint
Written By: Michael P. Cavanaugh, Environmental Law Graduate Fellow On October 8, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report, Global Warming of 1.5 °C. The report analyzed the impacts of global warming 1.5°C and 2°C above...
Pace Law Student Clinic Brings Law to Food and Drink
Written By: Siyi Shen, Global Environmental Law Graduate Fellow How can lawyers help food providers? Or farm owners? Or even craft beer producers? Students at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University have the chance to answer these questions by...
Breaking an Unsustainable Fad: Taking the Steps to Curb Our Use of Plastic One Plastic Straw at a Time
Written By: Michael P. Cavanaugh, Environmental Law Graduate Fellow The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest offshore plastic accumulation zone in the world’s oceans and located between Hawaii and California, is now three times the size of France and growing.[1]...
Pruitt’s Arbitrary Cost Accounting is Built into the Concept of Cost Benefit Analysis
EPA Adminstrator Scott Pruitt announced yesterday that today he will propose the repeal of the Obama-EPA Clean Power Plan, which required a system of carbon-emissions reductions by power plants to mitigate climate harms. The CPP was a good first step to obtain modest...