Searchable Library

By Michael B. Gerrard

Read the report New York Can Lead World in Fighting Climate Change in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

By Gabriel Wedy

Read the report Climate Legislation and Litigation in Brazil in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

Note: Brazil plays a major role in the global fight against climate change, especially because of its vast forests. However, the amount of deforestation now occurring is in great dispute. Between August 2014 and July 2015, for example, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 215% according to Imazon Research Institute. Contrarily, according to the Brazil Government, the increase was only 16%. This paper discusses the role that legislation and litigation are playing, and the roles they may and should play in the future, in combatting deforestation and other factors relevant to climate change in Brazil.

By Jessica Wentz

This article, published in the Environmental Law Reporter, examines how the federal agencies that manage natural resources and public lands can account for the current and future impacts of climate change in their management activities. It finds that the federal agencies responsible for managing these resources have generally recognized that considerations pertaining to climate change adaptation should be incorporated into existing planning processes, yet this topic is still treated as an afterthought in many planning documents. Only a few federal agencies have published guidance on how managers should consider climate change impacts and their management implications. This Article explains why these agencies are legally required to consider climate-related risks in planning processes, and presents recommendations and a model protocol for conducting this analysis.

Read the article Planning for the Effects of Climate Change on Natural Resources in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

By Jessica Wentz

This report describes how climate change will affect natural resources in the United States, and explains why consideration of how climate change will affect those resources is necessary in order to fulfill legal requirements under NEPA and other statutes governing the management of these resources. It also presents examples of how climate change has been meaningfully accounted for in environmental review and planning documents. The accompanying protocol contains guidelines for considering the impacts of climate change in environmental reviews as well as other planning documents (e.g., resource management plans and resource assessments).

Read the report Considering the Effects of Climate Change on Natural Resources in Environmental Review and Planning Documents: Guidelines for Agencies and Practitioners in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

By Anne Siders

This report compiles and examines case studies from across the United States where communities have already implemented managed retreat to protect against future disasters. By cataloging potential tools and illustrating the practical situations in which managed retreat has been used, this handbook hopes to provide policy makers with better information on the pros and cons of managed retreat.

Read the report Managed Coastal Retreat: A Legal Handbook on Shifting Development Away from Vulnerable Areas in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

Rommel Cassis

Read the report Painting REDD Offsets Green: A Case for Statutory Deuteranopia in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

Note: This paper evaluates whether the issuance REDD offsets is an effective climate change mitigation measure, and provides recommendations on the content of national legislation for REDD offsets.