Climate Law Blog

We are pleased to announce that Daniel Metzger has been promoted to Director of the Sabin Center’s Cities Climate Law Initiative. In this role, Daniel will continue to research legal tools that cities and other local governments can use to advance climate mitigation and adaptation. In addition to his academic research, Daniel will also work […]

Earlier this week, on April 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts enjoined five secretarial orders issued by the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) and U.S. Army Corps (“USACE”) that collectively imposed sweeping constraints on wind and solar development across the United States. The Sabin Center’s Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative […]

Introduction As a British judge with a special interest in environmental law, I have over the last two decades taken a particular interest in the developing role of the courts across the world in response to the challenges of climate change. In this article I shall look back at my perceptions of the responses of […]

On May 2, 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) received a formal petition requesting an advisory opinion on the human rights obligations of African States in relation to the climate change crisis. The petition before the AfCHPR details a continent already experiencing widespread and severe impacts at approximately 1.3°C of global […]

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Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court granted three fossil fuel companies’ petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Colorado Supreme Court’s opinion allowing the County Commissioners of Boulder County and the City of Boulder (together, Boulder) to proceed with their state-law claims that the companies are liable for climate change-related injuries suffered by […]

The Trump Administration’s increasing commitment to scientific nonsense regarding climate change creates an opportunity for other countries to lead. The Canadian Senate is recommending that Canada do just that with respect to marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). Canada is in a unique position to lead on mCDR development. Dalhousie University has been at the forefront […]

On February 12, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule rescinding the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and eliminating all federal greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for U.S. motor vehicles and engines. To justify this action, EPA has adopted an  interpretation of the Clean Air Act that has no judicial […]

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and digital services has brought renewed attention to the physical infrastructure underpinning the digital economy: data centers. While critical to the operations of major tech companies, data centers are now among the most energy-intensive forms of industrial infrastructure. Although it is possible to run data centers […]

A Year of Climate Rulings Handing down no less than five climate rulings in 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (“the ECtHR”) has been busy deciding the backlog of cases it had adjourned in 2023, while it dealt with three other climate cases pending before the Grand Chamber at that time (Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz […]

On Monday, February 9, 2026, the Sabin Center submitted an amicus curiae brief to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) in the matter of the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with Respect to the Climate Change Crisis. The brief explains how climate science can help […]

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School are pleased to invite submissions for the Second Conference on Attribution Science and Climate Law, to be held at Columbia University in New York City on June 10–11, 2026. This interdisciplinary conference will bring together researchers, scholars, and practitioners to examine the evolving […]