A Greener Life

JULY 27, 2025

The President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Judge Iwasawa Yuji, delivers his advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. The ICJ refers to the ozone layer treaties, the Biodiversity Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement as examples. Photo credit: ICJ.

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

AUGUST 7, 2025

After the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its advisory opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change , many observers were quick to conclude that it “[opens] the door to a cascade of lawsuits” ( Politico ). Overall, I argue that the opinion marks a significant step for climate change accountability.

Climate Change

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

This past week, I attended the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in Hangzhou, China. In previous posts, Ive explained what the IPCC is, why this assessment cycle is crucial , and highlighted its role in climate action. Whats Next for the IPCC?

Climate Change

Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Climate Finance is the Litmus Test for COP29 COP29 has been dubbed the “climate finance COP”. When countries signed the Paris Agreement back in 2015, they agreed to centre equity in how we tackle the climate crisis. Yet, Canada continues to be one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis.

Fossil Fuels

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. And they said, ‘You haven’t been making good progress on slowing climate change down.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Japan ) and a second in Yokosuka in 2019 ( Yokosuka Climate Case ). In the 2019 case, the judgments focused on the procedural aspect of the replacement of the coal-fired power plant and discussion of the climate issues was limited. The court viewed climate change as an uncertain future danger.

2025

Law Columbia

OCTOBER 25, 2024

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that CDR will be needed, alongside deep emissions cuts, to limit global warming to 1.5 to 2 o C in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. may be authorized under a permit.” Solar radiation management is distinct from CDR.

Carbon Dioxide

Law Columbia

MARCH 6, 2025

History of the Case Background to the Claim In April 2021, a group of plaintiffs led by the Czech Climate Litigation Association ( Klimatick aloba R ), and including a municipality and several individuals, filed a case against the central government of the Czech Republic and four subsidiary ministries for their inaction on climate change.

Paris Agreement

A Greener Life

DECEMBER 19, 2024

The forecast reflects Chinas broader commitment to addressing climate change and transforming its economy. The country has so far pledged to peak greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

2025

Inside Climate News

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

By Bob Berwyn BAKU, Azerbaijan—If speeches and slogans could save the climate, COP29 would already be a success. But there are few signs the current round of climate talks will deliver on the only thing proven to slow global warming: rapid greenhouse gas cuts.

Greenhouse

Law Columbia

JULY 29, 2025

A small group of States, composed mainly of the world’s dominant fossil fuel producers and consumers, argued that the only applicable international law was the three climate treaties – the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.

Fossil Fuels

Law Columbia

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Addressing methane is critically important in global efforts to address the climate crisis. 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.

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

Shell case, for instance, the Dutch courts upheld the ruling that Shell must act to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. With this in mind, here are three key developments that I believe will shape climate litigation in 2025. In the Milieudefensie et al.

2025

Law Columbia

JULY 15, 2025

The IACtHR described the ongoing climate emergency as an existential threat to the future of humankind (paras. 289, 302), and identifies the right to a healthy environment “as the principal right affected by climate change” (para. debt, poverty, inequality), with the long-term goal of being carbon neutral.

Climate Change

Law Columbia

MARCH 11, 2025

Copyright ICJ/CIJ/Frank van Beek This blog post is Part 2 of a three-part series highlighting the main legal arguments presented during the hearings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the advisory opinion request related to States obligations regarding climate change.

Climate Change

A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

During Trump’s first term, the US became the first nation in the world to announce its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement (a decision reversed by Joe Biden in 2021). A potential new path forward The past two decades have seen some progress in the realm of climate finance, but not enough. This will be a decisive issue at COP29.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

MAY 20, 2025

climate conference descends on the small Brazilian rainforest city of Belm in November 2025, it will be tempting to focus on the drama and disunity among major nations. Only 21 countries had even submitted their updated plans for managing climate change by the 2025 deadline required under the Paris Agreement.

Rainforest

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

Photo: Cara Horowitz Some have described the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku as “challenging,” “ineffective,” and “disappointing.” 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.

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

From that year forward, the agency predicted, the use of the dirtiest fuel to generate electricity would steadily decline, carrying with it planet-healing reductions in climate-changing air emissions and water-polluting discharges. At the time, the IEA forecast appeared sound. India followed. billion metric tons.

Clean Energy

Law Columbia

JANUARY 24, 2025

For example, Section 60103 of the IRA , which establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) , specifies that $15 billion of the $27 billion allocated to the GGRF should be used for the purposes of providing financial assistance and technical assistance in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

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. Yet the effects of climate change fires, floods, deadly heat waves among themare only getting worse.

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

JULY 29, 2025

To recap: The unanimous opinion found that nations of the world have a legal obligation to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases or else pay reparations for the harms of climate change. Dangerous Finding While the world affirms the right to a sustainable climate, U.S.

Fossil Fuels

Legal Planet

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

Here’s an uncontroversial proposition: if Donald Trump wins the election (a horrific thought), we will make less progress in attacking climate change than if Kamala Harris wins. His most recent remarks on climate were appalling: “They say global warming, they used to call it global warming but now they call it climate change.

Clean Energy

A Greener Life

MARCH 20, 2025

That is Al Gores assessment of the potential impact of President Donald Trumps notice to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change. However, Gore doesnt think this move will have as much impact on global climate action as some fear.

Fossil Fuels

Legal Planet

JULY 30, 2025

As the states explain : “Environmental justice aims to ensure that every person has equal access to clean air and water, safe and healthy food, a healthy and sustainable environment, and protection from the impacts of climate change. out of this international agreement for the first time.

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

AUGUST 8, 2025

Military activities and armed conflicts are a growing climate liability. 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.

Paris Agreement

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. This is important because states are on the front lines of climate change. But its not just Brazil. JB Pritzker?

Paris Agreement

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 26, 2024

Climate change is inevitably a complex subject. Our audience isnt just people who live and breathe climate law. How did the EPA get its power to issue climate change regulations? The Supreme Court upheld EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases. A greenhouse gas, Acrylic Bicarbonate-32.

Law

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 20, 2022

Sea level rise presents numerous climate justice issues. Some of the venues where people are addressing the injustices of climate change are UN climate negotiations, the courts, and community organizing efforts around the world. Climate justice research can help inform these conversations.

Sea Level

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 3, 2021

I feel like climate change is going to have to get worse before it gets better. Climate change has been a big, scary, looming problem for basically the entirety of my life; I cannot remember a time when it was not at least a background concern. This holiday season, I’m especially grateful for their tone of determination.

Climate Change

Real Climate

OCTOBER 27, 2021

All countries in the world urgently need to adapt to climate change but are not yet in a good position to do so. It’s urgent because we are not even adapted to the present climate. Such reports provide a summary of the state of our knowledge, but are not sufficiently specific for climate change adaptation.

Climate Change

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. The timing of these climate disputes is not accidental.

Climate Change

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. Such an advisory opinion would be a major step forward in understanding how to use the courts to promote climate justice and human rights.

Paris Agreement

New Scientist

JANUARY 21, 2025

The worlds largest economy and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases will withdraw from the global climate pact, disrupting efforts to tackle climate change

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

MARCH 29, 2023

Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash Climate change litigation has finally reached the world’s highest court. On March 29, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of States with respect to climate change.

Climate Change