Climate Change (generally)
The Climate Crisis and Agriculture
Author
Peter H. Lehner and Nathan A. Rosenberg
Author Bios (long)

Peter H. Lehner is Managing Attorney of the Sustainable Food & Farming Program at Earthjustice. Nathan A. Rosenberg is a visiting scholar at the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School and an attorney consulting for Earthjustice.

Date
February 2022
Volume
52
Issue
2
Page
10096
Type
Articles
Summary

Agriculture’s contribution to climate change is much more substantial than official figures suggest. We will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. Agriculture climate solutions are critical elements both in ensuring our food security and in limiting climate change. This Article, excerpted from Farming for Our Future: The Science, Law, and Policy of Climate-Neutral Agriculture (ELI Press 2021), provides the current state of emissions in the agriculture sector, and argues that we must transform agriculture from one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases into a net sink.

Renewable Energy and Biodiversity Conservation
Author
James McElfish Jr., Patrick Donnelly, Margaret Spring, and Priya Gandbhir
Author Bios (long)

James McElfish Jr. (moderator) is Director of the Sustainable Use of Land Program and a Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute. Patrick Donnelly is the Nevada State Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Margaret Spring is the Chief Conservation and Science Officer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Priya Gandbhir is a Staff Attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation.

Date
February 2022
Volume
52
Issue
2
Page
10079
Type
Dialogue
Summary

The rapid transition of energy resources from fossil fuels toward renewables has been widely recognized as an essential tool in mitigating climate change. Yet, renewable energy development projects and facilities can be land use-intensive and have the potential to negatively impact conservation areas. To attempt to tackle these issues, President Joseph Biden signed Executive Order No. 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which (1) outlines a way forward for increasing both renewable energy production and acreage of conservation areas, and (2) pledges a target of conserving 30% of the nation's lands and waters by 2030. On September 28, 2021, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts that explored the intersections of climate mitigation, renewable energy development, and biodiversity conservation. This Dialogue presents a transcript of that discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations.

H.R. 6492
Update Type
Committee Name
Committees on Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Reform, the Judiciary, Transportation and Infrastructure, Ways and Means, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Financial Services
Sponsor Name
Jayapal
Sponsor Party Affiliation
D-Wash.
Issue
3
Volume
52
Update Issue
3
Update Volume
52
Congress Number
117
Congressional Record Number
168 Cong. Rec. H301

would establish a climate resilience workforce.

A New Causal Pathway for Recovery in Climate Change Litigation?
Author
Thomas Burman
Author Bios (long)

Thomas Burman works as project development counsel at Virunga Power, a sustainable energy infrastructure developer in East and Southern Africa. He was previously an attorney in the energy, environmental, mining, and transportation division at Stinson LLP.

Date
January 2022
Volume
52
Issue
1
Page
10038
Type
Articles
Summary

Courts across the globe recognize that human-induced climate change leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather and other events, resulting in significant damages to persons and property. Although courts have therefore ordered countries and corporations to take more aggressive actions to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, no court has yet required any emitter to pay damages for injuries from a climate changerelated event. Causation issues remain a significant obstacle to such claims. To overcome this obstacle, this Article proposes using causal and liability standards that have long been applied in tort claims involving diffuse environmental pollution. Specifically, the “necessary element of a sufficient set” approach, when combined with proportional liability, may allow a plaintiff to establish an entity’s emissions as a legally relevant cause of a specific climate-related injury. The Article reviews the laws of five key jurisdictions, concluding that the proposed approach may successfully establish a legally relevant causal link in most, if not all, of them, with varying success depending on the climate change-related event in question.

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