Environmental Policy & Law

In a new report that ranks countries by how well they protect the environment, the U.S. comes in at a disappointing 26th place among 180 nations.

To the Editor: In “Wind, Sun and Fire” (column, Feb. 1), Paul Krugman, concluding that we can have the energy revolution we need “even if the crazies retain control of the House,” ignores some important realities.

When Robert Klee took over as Connecticut's Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection in 2014, he viewed his role as that of an implementer. As he indicated when he took over, it was his job to take the innovations proposed by his predecessor, Daniel Esty, and move them from concept to reality. As 2015 drew to a close, however, it was clear that Klee has implemented those plans and is now looking to innovate and tackle new, bigger ideas. The energy and environmental spheres in Connecticut appear ripe for major change as 2016 begins.

I asked Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of the Center for International Environment & Resource Policy at Tuft University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, what a Republican president — one who opposes action on climate change — could mean for any progress reached in Paris this week.

[from December 2, 2015] Major world leaders today launched an unprecedented global carbon pricing initiative, calling for nations of the world to put a price on carbon pollution to protect the climate and accelerate a transition to ä clean, sustainable energy future. The initiative is sponsored by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

“Finance is the bedrock of this agreement. It is through commitment of finance that the confidence and the trust that has always been debated in this process is strengthened.” These words of Pa Ousman, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change for the Gambia, reflect a strong sentiment of developing country representatives at the Paris climate negotiations this week: a just climate deal necessitates predictable public flows of money to support the most vulnerable countries in the face of escalating climate disasters, and to enable low-carbon development.

Changing the world is an expensive proposition. But for the representatives for the 195 countries gathered in Paris for the COP21 summit on climate change, the most daunting step might be figuring out how to split the bill. “The elephant in the room is still finance,” said Yvo de Boer, former head of the U.N. climate change body, at the start of the climate talks.

The medical anthropologist Paul Farmer once wrote that "the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world." For many in the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris this week, this idea is at the heart of disagreement on a pathway forward.

From The MIT Press: After nearly a quarter century of international negotiations on climate change, we stand at a crossroads. A new set of agreements is likely to fail to prevent the global climate’s destabilization. Islands and coastlines face inundation, and widespread drought, flooding, and famine are expected to worsen in the poorest and most vulnerable countries. How did we arrive at an entirely inequitable and scientifically inadequate international response to climate change?