Will Rights of Nature Save The World?
Examining whether granting legal rights to nature could make a difference in how courts understand environmental law
A number of environmental advocates have been pushing a new strategy for environmental protection – seeking to pursue legal rights for elements of nature (such as rivers, lakes, ecosystems, or species), sometimes in alliance with Native American tribes. This approach is not unique to the United States – rights of nature legal approaches have been …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo FERC Cases and Why They Matter
Last week’s D.C. Circuit cases illustrate why environmental lawyers need to understand FERC.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been called the most important environmental agency that no one has heard of. At the end of last week, the D.C. Circuit decided two undramatic FERC cases that illustrate FERC’s environmental significance. One involved a bailout to coal and nuclear plants, the other involved water quality. The first …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributors Jasmine Robinson and Jessica Vived: Proposed Extreme Heat and Air Quality Protections for Agricultural Workers Advance in California Legislature
AB 2243 resulted from a partnership between law students in UCLA Law's California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, UCLA’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia
We are students in UCLA Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, a course in which students work with legislative staff in the California State Legislature to advance environmental policy goals. In Fall 2021, working with staff for State Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, we developed recommendations for stronger heat and air quality protections for agricultural workers. California’s …
CONTINUE READINGEquity Weighting: A Brief Introduction
An unfamiliar concept for most that just might make cost-benefit analysis more progressive.
A technique called equity weighting could make regulation more progressive. Implementing this technique may be harder than it sounds, however, for a variety of practical, legal, and political reasons. Agencies might do best to use equity weighting as a way to check their regulatory decisions rather than as their main decision tool.
CONTINUE READINGSouth Korea and Climate Change
A small country, but a significant carbon emitter.
Little known fact: The ninth largest carbon emitter in the world is South Korea. What is South Korea doing to cut its emissions? That answer, in brief, is that it has adopted the right kinds of policies, but may need to up its level of ambition. Even so, it compares favorably with the national governments …
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CONTINUE READINGEmissions Trading in California: Lessons for China
A New UCLA Report for Chinese Regulators and Researchers
We are pleased to announce the release of a new UCLA Law Emmett Institute of Climate Change & Environment report on Emissions Trading in California: Lessons for China. As many of you know, China launched trading for its national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading system (ETS) in 2021. By volume of emissions, the Chinese system …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Policy in India
What’s Happening in the World’s Second Largest Country?
India is home to 1.39 billion people, just below China but growing faster. By some projections, it will have the second largest economy in the world by 2050. In terms of climate policy, however, it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as China. That’s understandable in terms of India’s current carbon emissions, which are now …
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CONTINUE READINGWhose Interests Count? And How Much?
Whether to consider harms to foreign countries and future generations is controversial. So is how much weight to give harm to the poor.
Should regulators take into account harm to people in other countries? What about harm to future generations? Should we give special attention when the disadvantaged are harmed? These questions are central to climate policy and some other important environmental issues. I’ll use cost-benefit analysis as a framework for discussing these issues. You probably don’t need …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Abundance Research Agenda
If we need to build lots of things fast to address climate and housing crises, how will we do that?
There’s been a lot of buzz about this column by Ezra Klein in the New York Times. Klein’s basic argument: We need to do a lot of infrastructure and other development projects to make the world a better place. For example, we’ll need to build power lines and renewable projects to address climate change. But …
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CONTINUE READINGWill public power advance decarbonization?
Increasing public control of energy systems may not facilitate decarbonization
Over the past few years, there has been a push in both Europe and the United States for a “Green New Deal” in which decarbonization efforts would be pushed by aggressive, direct government investments in clean energy technology and infrastructure. But in much of the United States and in Europe, large portions of the electricity …
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