News & Events

Co-authors J.B. Ruhl of Vanderbilt University Law School and Robin Kundis Craig of USC Gould School of Law discussed their article 4°C at the 2023 ELPAR Conference. The authors explore how scientific evidence indicates that the planet is well on its way to at least 4°C of warming—a scenario that presents categorically different adaptation challenges including large migrations within U.S. boundaries and suggest that a range of anticipatory governance practices to facilitate “redesign adaptation” should be initiated now, beginning with a new national foresight research program.

On Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted, by consensus, a resolution asking the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion layout what countries’ obligations are to protect the climate in order to secure human rights. Sandra Nichols Thiam, a climate law specialist at the nonprofit Environmental Institute, discusses the significance of this UNGA action. 

Vanuatu is eagerly awaiting the outcome of a landmark move to hold countries, with a legal obligation to deal with climate change, to account. More than 100 countries, including Australia, have backed a push to clarify what nations are required to do in preventing environmental harm. Vice President of Research and Policy at the Environmental Law Institute Sandra Nichols Thiam explains.