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Vibrant Environment
Biodiversity | Climate Change and Sustainability | Environmental Justice | Governance and Rule of Law | Land Use and Natural Resources | Oceans and Coasts | Pollution Control
Rhetoric or Reality: What Would Withdrawal From the Paris Agreement Require?
By John Pendergrass, Vice President, Programs & Publications
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
The annual business meeting of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 22d such Conference of the Parties (COP 22), just concluded in Marrakech, Morocco. At the top of the agenda was implementation of the Paris Agreement, which entered into force November 4, 2016, just days before the COP opened and the U.S. election. The latter apparently shifted the focus of hallway conversations as President-elect Donald Trump’s views on climate change and climate treaties were of great interest to participants and observers.
Henry M. Paulson, Jr., a Man of Big Ideas and Bigger Action
By Laura Frederick, Grants & Development Writer
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Each year, ELI hosts its Annual Dinner, bringing together the best and brightest environmental professionals to celebrate the accomplishments of the winner of the Institute’s Environmental Achievement Award. On October 25th, at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, D.C., ELI honored Henry M. “Hank” Paulson, Jr. for his efforts to improve cooperation on environmental protection endeavors between the United States and China.
Saving the African Pangolin: The Case of Zimbabwe
By Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Visiting Fellow
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Human threats to pangolins in Zimbabwe have been kept in check for hundreds of years by traditional practices, but the recent globalization of illicit trade in these scaly, anteater-like mammals has threatened to exterminate them. Held in high regard by traditional chiefs, village headmen, and the tribal communities in general, the pangolin has historically benefitted from human protection in Africa. Zimbabwean folklore advised that the hunting of the pangolin (haka) be strictly controlled, and the deliberate taming of the pangolin was a serious offense.
Environmental Law Institute's Take on the 2016 Presidential Election: Rising Above the Rhetoric
By Scott Fulton, President, Environmental Law Institute
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Here at the Environmental Law Institute, we have started getting questions about the meaning of the election for environmental protection, and, in particular, for environmental law. As a 50 year-old non-partisan think-and-do tank focused on building good governance and rule of law in the environmental arena, we think it is important to look past campaign rhetoric in responding to this question. The election of President-Elect Trump was not in our view a referendum on the environment.
ELI’s Model Law Can Help Countries Implement Their Commitments Under the Paris Agreement
By John Pendergrass, Vice President, Programs & Publications
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
As the Paris Agreement enters into force today, it is important to recognize both the significance of this event and the substantial work now required to implement its provisions. While much attention has been given to its goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to “well below 2°C” relative to pre-industrial times, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to a 1.5°C increase, the real significance of the Paris Agreement is that at least 190 countries and the European Union have pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
New ELI Toolkit Aims to Turn the Tide on Marine Litter
By Elana Harrison, Assistant Director of Professional Education
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of marine debris swirling around the north Pacific Ocean, is estimated by some scientists to be roughly the same size as the state of Texas. While the Garbage Patch moniker can conjure images of a physical trash island, in reality, it is almost entirely made up of microplastics not always seen by the eye, turning the sea into a cloudy soup. Around 80% of the debris comes from land-based sources in North America and Asia.
Charting the Course: A Survey on Public Engagement in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Process
By Teresa Chan, Senior Attorney, and Amy Reed, Staff Attorney
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Public participation and engagement are easy values to talk about generally, but are difficult to implement meaningfully. In Gulf restoration, the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process provides the federal government, states, and the public with an unprecedented opportunity to pursue the difficult actions that put these values into practice.
Square Peg, Round Hole: Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Without Legislative Action
By David Roche, Staff Attorney
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
The legislative process is complicated. Sea-level rise adaptation is complicated. Combine the two, and a tangled mess can result as the law sorts itself out.
Few laws on the books were written with sea-level rise (or climate change, generally) in mind. As a result, policymakers, lawyers, and property owners are left to their own devices to determine how it all fits together. This round hole-square peg legal setup often requires judicial adjudication to become workable and uniform.
At the national level, the regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act is a great example.
The Paris Agreement is a Miracle
By Ann Carlson, Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Something extraordinary happened last week: the Paris Agreement on climate change became a reality. Fifty-five percent of the world’s countries, and countries responsible for 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ratified the accord. The agreement will go into effect on November 4th, far faster than many observers predicted.
How Federal Agencies Are Improving Consideration of Environmental Justice in the NEPA Processes
By James M. McElfish, Jr., Senior Attorney; Director, Sustainable Use of Land Program
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Earlier this year, more than a dozen federal agencies produced a new resource document that pulls together methods that they use to evaluate environmental justice (EJ) concerns when preparing environmental analysis of proposed actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
This new document, Promising Practices for EJ Methodologies in NEPA Reviews (the Promising Practices report), was the product of more than three years of work by a NEPA Committee established by the federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice.
