Today is the first day of COP28, where participants will discuss the first-ever global stocktake, an assessment of global action on climate change to date. The global stocktake report includes an inventory of climate-related data which evaluates whether the world is on track to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. The goal is for countries and other actors to use these technical findings to step up political actions and set more ambitious national targets and actions, to accelerate global climate action. In this week’s episode, host Sarah Backer dives into the equity and environmental justice considerations of the global stocktake with Angela Barranco, the Director for North America at the Climate Group and Charles Di Leva, Partner at Sustainability Frameworks, LLP and Former Chief Officer of Environmental and Social Standards at the World Bank.  

Relevant Resources:  

Financial Times, UK, Canada and Germany lead fresh push against coal power at COP28 

Reuters, COP28 kicks off with climate disaster fund victory 

Glasglow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, Amount of finance committed to achieving 1.5°C now at scale needed to deliver the transition 

International Energy Agency, For the first time in decades, the number of people without access to electricity is set to increase in 2022 

The World Bank, Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies 

An estimated 312 million pounds of food will be wasted this Thanksgiving. In this week’s episode, host Sarah Backer is joined by ELI Senior Attorney Linda Breggin and Research Associate Elly Beckerman to discuss the food waste problem and some easy solutions for this holiday season—and throughout the year. Linda is the co-director of ELI’s Food Waste Initiative which conducts research and works with stakeholders to prevent food waste, increase surplus food donation, and recycle the remaining food scraps. Elly joins to discuss her personal experiences as a home cook invested in reducing food waste over the holidays.  

Relevant Resources: 

National Museum of the American Indian, Rethinking Thanksgiving Celebrations: Native Perspectives on Thanksgiving 

Smithsonian Magazine, Thanksgiving from an Indigenous Perspective 

NRDC, Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill  

ReFED, Americans Will Waste Nearly 312 Million Pounds of Food This Thanksgiving  

EPA, From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste

The Biden-Harris administration has placed an unprecedented federal focus on environmental justice using a whole of government approach, including issuing executive orders demanding accountability and action from a broad list of federal agencies and requiring input from impacted communities. In this week’s episode of Groundtruth, Beveridge & Diamond Associate Hilary Jacobs meets with Ebony Griffin of Earthjustice for a focused conversation about environmental justice and community engagement. They also discuss how regulators and companies can meaningfully engage with impacted communities to address environmental justice concerns.

In this week’s episode of People Places Planet Podcast, host Sarah Backer sits down with Dr. Marshall Shepherd, ELI’s 2023 Environmental Achievement Award recipient and renowned scientist, to have a conversation in celebration of his work. They discuss Shepherd’s background, inspirations, and views on solutions for the climate crisis. He delves into topics like climate delayism and the need for a “climate moonshot,” providing a self-proclaimed “Weather Geek” perspective into extreme weather events, environmental justice issues, and other important climate issues facing our communities today. 

Loosening wetland protections threatens ecosystems and worsens climate damage
Prism
August 30, 2023
https://prismreports.org/2023/08/30/epa-guts-wetland-protections-climate-change/

When the Supreme Court decided to upend federal wetland protection standards in June with its decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), much of the public’s focus shifted to the potential for fallout regarding the what of the legal matter: wetlands. Less emphasis was placed on the how of wetland protection that largely takes place through wetland mitigation banking, or the restoration, establishment, or enhancement of wetlands.

UGA professor Marshall Shepherd to be recognized with Environmental Achievement Award
Athens Banner-Herald
August 30, 2023
https://www.onlineathens.com/story/news/education/2023/08/29/2023-environmental…

University of Georgia professor J. Marshall Shepherd was recently named the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Environmental Achievement Award. This accolade is presented annually by the Environmental Law Institute to individuals or organizations that have made notable contributions to environmental protection, conservation and sustainability.

In this week’s episode of the People Places Planet podcast, Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein engages in an illuminating discussion with Vanderbilt Professor W. Kip Viscusi about the social cost of carbon—a hotly debated and frequently litigated number—that is used to quantify the harm caused by one ton of carbon emissions. They are joined by ELI Senior Attorney Linda K. Breggin and Vanderbilt Law student Kyle Blasinsky. This important number is used in developing a range of regulations and soon will be used in federal budgeting and purchasing decisions, as well as National Environmental Policy Act reviews, under a new Biden Executive Order. Professor Sunstein, an Obama Administration Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator, discusses the key judgement calls that must be made in developing the social cost of carbon, such as the appropriate discount rate and approaches to incorporating equity, and offers his views on developing a number that can withstand arbitrariness review in any renewed effort to challenge the number in court. 
 

Professor Sunstein’s related article Arbitrariness Review and Climate Change was selected for inclusion in this year’s Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, which recognizes scholarship that presents creative and feasible legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. ELPAR is published annually by the ELI’s Environmental Law Reporter in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Law School.

Louisiana’s inland, non-tidal wetlands are most at risk to lose protections from weakened Clean Water Act
The Lens
October 18, 2023
https://thelensnola.org/2023/10/18/louisianas-inland-non-tidal-wetlands-are-mos…

Louisiana’s inland wetlands are at risk of losing federal protections, after a court decision changed the way wetlands are legally defined. The change, which took effect last month, limits the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and dramatically weakens the Clean Water Act, a pollution control act that celebrates its 51st anniversary today.

In this week’s episode of People Places Planet Podcast, ELI’s three summer interns (Anna Guzman, Natalie Triana, and Alex Alvarez) sit down with host Sarah Backer to reflect on their experience as summer interns, share who they are, their interests, and what brought them to ELI. They delve into their independent research projects, which cover substantive due process claims in climate litigation, climate migration issues in the Caribbean, and community gardening in California.

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