This may be the shortest month of the year, but our work in February stretches long. Check out what’s new below. And please consider joining us for
upcoming events
on campus!
Cara Horowitz
, co-executive director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law
Photo credit: Simon Brisebois, Flickr
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As climate change warms the world’s oceans, fish stocks are migrating toward colder waters in the poles. In a study for
Nature Sustainability
, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law
James Salzman
joins a group of economists and marine scientists to examine for the first time the economic implications of this stock shift for nations that rely on commercial fishing.
The study models projected changes in the distribution of 779 commercial fish species under different carbon emission scenarios and finds tropical countries — particularly Northwest African nations — stand to lose, on average, between 7% and 40% of fish species that were present in 2012. Few stocks will replace those leaving their national waters, leading to a net loss.
The authors find that existing policy frameworks in fisheries law are poorly equipped for this challenge and suggest a way forward that draws on climate policy.
Read a
Legal Planet
blog post from Salzman and the study in
Nature Sustainability
.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy, Flickr
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An
article in UCLA Newsroom
previews the
Human Rights and the Climate Crisis
conference at UCLA Law tomorrow, Feb. 28, which will bring together leading lawyers, scholars and activists to examine how laws that guarantee the rights to life, health, food, an adequate standard of living, and other human rights, can be applied to seek redress for the harm that climate change is creating.
Ann Carlson
, Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and Emmett Institute faculty co-director, has
closely followed
rights-based litigation in the United States and international jurisdictions, including the high-profile Juliana v. United States lawsuit, which the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed earlier this year. Carlson will speak on the opening panel and
Cara Horowitz
will moderate.
Photo credit: World Meteorological Organization
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In Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, this month, Professor
Ann Carlson
and Professor
Alex Wang
presented to federal judges of the Central District of California on current climate and environmental law issues in Los Angeles, California, and global jurisdictions. UCLA Law alum
Hon. Philip S. Gutierrez '84
and
Hon. André Birotte Jr.
, invited our faculty members to speak at an annual retreat for the judges.
Emmett Institute faculty regularly share knowledge with civil servants in California and around the world. Last year, Wang led trainings in environmental law for judges in China and organized a two-week learning tour for Chinese local air quality officials in Los Angeles and North Carolina. This May, Professor
William Boyd
will lead the
annual meeting
of the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force, a collaboration of 38 subnational jurisdictions that provides resources for local officials in protecting tropical forests.
Photo credit: Emmett Institute
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This month, U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal and Sen. Tom Udall introduced new federal legislation to curb plastic pollution. In a
Legal Planet blog post
, supervising attorney
Julia Stein
writes the bill breaks from prior legislation with measures designed to reduce consumer demand and shift responsibility to plastic producers.
The new bill is consistent with many of the
recommendations presented to lawmakers
by UCLA Law students
Charoula Melliou LL.M. ’19
and
Divya Rao ’20
, and Stein in a January 2019 trip to Washington, D.C. The students briefed Congress as part of a semester-long project led by the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic and the Surfrider Foundation.
Photo credit: Heal the Bay, Flickr
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The fellowship is a full-time, one-year faculty position beginning July 1, 2020.
Apply here
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Register today for our lunchtime discussions at UCLA Law this spring:
- On March 16, Harvard Law professor Richard Lazarus will share insights from his book, The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court, which reveals the personal dynamics of the justices and dramatizes the workings of the Court during the Massachusetts v. EPA arguments. Ann Carlson will moderate. Details/RSVP.
- On April 1, Texas Law professor Thomas McGarity will examine the progress made and the lesson learned as we seek to build a more sustainable electricity grid that also attends to the economic dislocations caused by the clean energy transition. McGarity's new book is Pollution, Politics, and Power: The Struggle for Sustainable Electricity. William Boyd will moderate. Details/RSVP.
- On April 20, Tom Cormons '06, Executive Director of Appalachian Voices, will discuss his work protecting the land, air, and water of Central and Southern Appalachia and advancing a just transition to a generative and equitable clean energy economy. Evan Frankel Professor of Policy and Practice Sean Hecht will moderate. Details/RSVP.
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Laura Yraceburu '20 wins water law writing prize
UCLA Law student
Laura Yraceburu '20
won the 2020 California Water Law Writing Prize Contest for a paper on the effects of California's Proposition 218 on community gardens in Los Angeles. Yraceburu developed the paper as a student in UCLA Law's water law course, taught by
Jim Salzman
.
In the paper, Yraceburu examines how California’s Proposition 218’s procedural and substantive requirements have contributed to extraordinary increases in water rates for community gardens, causing some gardens to quadruple gardeners’ dues and pricing out low-income communities that rely on the gardens to supplement their diets with fresh fruits and vegetables. Yraceburu advocates for reform to allow local governments more flexible tools to raise funds for services and support to their residents.
Yraceburu's award was presented at the
California Water Law Symposium
earlier this month. The paper will be published in the California Water Law Journal this spring.
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February trivia corner
Climate protesters at Los Angeles City Hall this month demanded city leaders instate a health and safety buffer between oil and gas operations and schools and homes.
What distance (in feet) do advocates recommend between drilling sites and sensitive areas?
Our last trivia question asked: What year(s) did it snow on UCLA's campus? Answer: 1932 and 1949. Correct responses were submitted by
Jessica Hsieh '21
and
Nicholas Baltaxe '19
. Congratulations!
Photo credit: Daniel Melling
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New blog posts on Legal Planet
Subscribe to our blog
here
to receive
regular posts on climate and environmental law and policy from UCLA Law and Berkeley Law faculty
.
Recent highlights:
- Emmett Climate Engineering Fellow Charles Corbett assesses how much power federal courts have to protect individuals from environmental injury and examines the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as a springboard for federal geoengineering governance
- Emmett/Frankel Fellow Jesse Reynolds analyzes the origins of a proposal made by President Trump in the State of the Union address for a massive tree-planting initiative.
- Emmett Climate Engineering Fellow Holly Buck reviews recent reports on carbon removal, identifying a need for more research on policies, institutions, and cultural change to support negative emissions technologies.
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Emmett Institute faculty are organizing and participating in events and talks over the next few months:
Climate Change Technologies: Social and Political Perspectives Workshop
March 12-13, 2020 | UCSD Institute for Practical Ethics
Holly Buck
will deliver a keynote address at a workshop addressing social and political questions arising from the application of new technologies to address climate change.
Details.
2020 Natural Capital Symposium
March 16-18, 2020 | Stanford University
Jim Salzman
will give a keynote presentation at an event
advancing the science and practice of incorporating nature’s diverse values into decisions
.
Details/RSVP.
March 24, 2020 | University of Vermont
Jim Salzman
will deliver a public lecture at the Gund Institute for Environment.
Details.
Clean Air for All: 50 Years of the Clean Air Act
March 31, 2020 | Washington, D.C.
Ann Carlson
will speak at a conference
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Clean Air Act, hosted by the American Lung Association, the American University Center for Environmental Policy, and the American University Center for Environmental Filmmaking
Details.
Community Climate Interventions Strategies Workshop: The Future of Research
April 15–17, 2020 | National Center for Atmospheric Research / University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO
Holly Buck
and
Jesse Reynolds
will speak.
Details.
April 20-21, 2020 | San Francisco, CA
Sean Hecht
will speak at an EUCI conference for utility professionals on how the industry can respond to wildfire risk.
Details/RSVP.
Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force 2020 Annual Meeting
May 5-7, 2020 | Manaus, Brazil
William Boyd
will lead this annual meeting of a subnational collaboration of 38 states and provinces working to protect tropical forests, reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and promote rural development.
Details/RSVP.
Photo credit: Daniel Melling
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Daniel Melling writes the Emmett Institute newsletter with editing from Sean Hecht and Cara Horowitz. Please send any feedback to
melling@law.ucla.edu
.
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About the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law
The Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is the country's leading law school center focused on climate change and other critical environmental issues. Founded in 2008 with a generous gift from Dan A. Emmett and his family, the Institute works across disciplines to develop and promote research and policy tools useful to decision makers locally, statewide, nationally and beyond. Our Institute serves as a premier source of environmental legal scholarship, nonpartisan expertise, policy analysis and training
.
Learn more.
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