Applying the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment Meaningfully to Climate Disruption

The Pennsylvania Constitution contains a unique Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA), which recognizes an individual right to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” The ERA also includes a public trust element that makes “Pennsylvania’s public natural resources . . . the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.” It makes the Commonwealth the “trustee of these resources,” requiring it to “conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” Recent decisions by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (the Court) in Robinson Township v. Commonwealth and Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation v. Commonwealth provide significant support for Pennsylvania regulations to address the threat of climate disruption posed by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century. In light of the threats that climate disruption poses to Pennsylvania’s public natural resources, the text of the ERA, and the principles articulated in those recent cases, we argue that a stable climate (a climate that has not been disrupted by anthropogenic emissions of GHGs) should be considered protected by the rights recognized by the ERA, and the public trust duties it creates. We argue that these rights and duties require Pennsylvania to employ regulatory measures to reduce GHG emissions to the level warranted by the social cost of carbon and to achieve carbon neutrality (net zero emissions) by mid-century. Further, we argue that there are judicially recognizable standards to compel the Commonwealth to exercise its existing authority to limit GHG emissions. In light of existing legislative authority, the obligations imposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and the federal Clean Air Act, we make the case that this regulatory program should take the form of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program providing for the auction of allowances with a reserve price based on the social cost of carbon and additional measures to prevent leakage and a cap reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States provides a “legal playbook” for deep decarbonization in the United States, identifying well over 1,000 legal options for enabling the United States to address one of the greatest problems facing this country and the rest of humanity. The book is based on two reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) that explain technical and policy pathways for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This 80x50 target and similarly aggressive carbon abatement goals are often referred to as deep decarbonization, distinguished because it requires systemic changes to the energy economy. Legal Pathways explains the DDPP reports and then addresses in detail 35 different topics in as many chapters. These 35 chapters cover energy efficiency, conservation, and fuel switching; electricity decarbonization; fuel decarbonization; carbon capture and negative emissions; non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants; and a variety of cross-cutting issues. The legal options involve federal, state, and local law, as well as private governance. Authors were asked to include all options, even if they do not now seem politically realistic or likely, giving Legal Pathways not just immediate value, but also value over time. While both the scale and complexity of deep decarbonization are enormous, this book has a simple message: deep decarbonization is achievable in the United States using laws that exist or could be enacted. These legal tools can be used with significant economic, social, environmental, and national security benefits.https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1000/thumbnail.jp

America\u27s Zero Carbon Action Plan: Federal Legislative and Administrative Framework

This chapter sets out proposed federal laws and policies for America\u27s Zero Carbon Action Plan, a comprehensive report on how to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This chapter sets forth recommendations for all four pillars of deep decarbonization – electricity decarbonization, energy efficiency and conservation, electrification of transportation and buildings, and carbon capture. It is supplemented with recommendations for significant reductions in emissions of non-carbon dioxide pollutants, as well as for changes in foreign policy. Each set of recommendations is accompanied by an explanation of the underlying strategy for the proposed changes

Process evaluation of a health- and fitness-related physical education program

Objective The aim of this process evaluation study was to investigate fidelity, acceptance, applicability and movement time with respect to the health- and fitness-related GEKOS program (Förderung bewegungsbezogener Gesundheitskompetenz im Sportunterricht) linking theory and practice in physical education. Methods Fidelity was investigated by observation, self-report forms and poster documentations. Applicability and students’ (n = 472) and teachers’ (n = 27) acceptance were examined by qualitative interviews and surveys directly after the GEKOS program. Movement time was assessed using accelerometer data and compared to students’ (n = 369) movement time in regular physical education classes. Results Overall, fidelity was high and statements in the interviews and surveys with regard to applicability and acceptance were heterogeneous. Particularly critical was the low net movement time, which was assessed using device-based accelerometer data. Conclusion The results allowed us to identify barriers such as standardization and facilitators such as teachers’ acceptance of teaching student-centered approaches. Therefore, flexibility in the delivery of programs and the balance between net time moving and theoretical cognitive activating content in PE need to be discussed further in terms of long-term implementation of such a program

Beyond Zero-Sum Environmentalism

Environmental law and environmental protection are often portrayed as requiring trade offs: “jobs versus environment,” “markets versus regulation,” “enforcement versus incentives .” In the summer of 2016, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative gathered to consider how environmentalism and environmental regulation can advance beyond this framing to include new constituents and offer new pathways to tackle the many significant challenges ahead . Months later, the initial activities of the Trump Administration highlighted the use of zero-sum rhetoric, with the appointment of government officials and the issuance of executive orders that indeed seem to view environmental issues as in a zero-sum relationship with jobs or economic progress . In the essays below, the authors explore the meaning and the role of zero-sum environmentalism as a first step in moving beyond it

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u27s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report presented significant data and findings about climate change. But the IPCC\u27s working groups\u27 summaries for policymakers avoid making normative statements about the IPCC\u27s findings. The authors, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative, bridge this gap by identifying the normative claims that stem from the working groups\u27 summaries to spark deeper discussion and help shape the IPCC\u27s sixth assessment

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result that is the product not only of each scholar’s individual knowledge but also of the group’s robust discussion

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result that is the product not only of each scholar’s individual knowledge but also of the group’s robust discussion

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result that is the product not only of each scholar’s individual knowledge but also of the group’s robust discussion

Making America a Better Place for All: Sustainable Development Recommendations for the Biden Administration

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs are nonbinding; each nation is to implement them based on its own priorities and circumstances. This Article argues that the SDGs are a critical normative framework the United States should use to improve human quality of life, freedom, and opportunity by integrating economic and social development with environmental protection. It collects the recommendations of 22 experts on steps that the Biden-Harris Administration should take now to advance each of the SDGs. It is part of a book project that will recommend not only federal actions, but also actions by state and local governments, the private sector, and civil society. In the face of multiple challenges and opportunities, this Article is intended to contribute to a robust public discussion about how to accelerate the transition to a sustainable society and make America a better place for all