Tides of Justice: The Climate Advisory Opinions and Legal Duties to Make the Ocean Fossil-Free

Published June 5, 2025 By Joie Chowdhury, Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, Aditi Shetye, Global Strategic Litigation Lead at the World’s Youth for Climate Justice and Researcher in Public International & Environmental Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; and Theresa Amor-Juergenssen, Legal Research and Capacity-Building Lead at … Read More.

COP29: Time for Real Climate Finance and Fossil Fuel Phaseout

Published November 7, 2024 By Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney for the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law, and Rossella Recupero, Communications Campaign Specialist at the Center for International Environmental Law. The stakes are once again high as the world heads to the 29th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change … Read More.

Climate Crisis Triggers Dangerous Domino Effect: Insurance, Housing, Financial Crises

Published July 23, 2024 By Lindsay Fenlock, Senior Researcher at the Center for International Environmental Law, Charles Slidders, Senior Attorney, Financial Strategies at the Center for International Environmental Law, and Nikki Reisch, Director of the Climate & Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law. This is the second analysis in a multi-part series, … Read More.

Escazú COP3: Ensuring Environmental Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Published May 13, 2024 By Luisa Gomez Betancur, Senior Attorney, and Lani Furbank, Communications Campaign Specialist. The Escazú Agreement is the first legally binding regional treaty that upholds environmental democracy — the right to information, participation, and justice — in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the first in the world containing specific provisions aiming … Read More.

The Global Coalition for the Right to a Healthy Environment: Making History & Protecting Our Collective Future

Published February 2, 2024 By Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney & Human Rights & Climate Campaign Manager, and Lani Furbank, Communications Campaign Specialist. On the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a diverse, people-powered, global coalition made history at the United Nations headquarters in New York.  The Global Coalition of Civil Society, Indigenous … Read More.

COP28: A Crucial Crossroads for Fossil Fuel Phaseout and Human Rights

Published November 29, 2023 The United Nations climate conference gets underway in the United Arab Emirates this week against a backdrop of broken records and broken promises. From off-the-charts temperatures and unprecedented weather events to off-the-rails climate policies and missing climate finance, 2023 has raised the stakes for this year’s intergovernmental climate talks to new … Read More.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Frequently Asked Questions

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is purported to collect or “capture” carbon dioxide generated by high-emitting activities, and is therefore commonly proposed as a technology to help meet global energy and climate goals. However, CCS does not address the core drivers of the climate crisis or meaningfully reduce greenhouse emissions, and should not distract from … Read More.

False Solutions Prevail Over Real Ambition at COP26

The climate talks, COP26, in Glasgow started with a plethora of declarations. But in the end it failed to deliver on the real and immediate action needed to avoid climate catastrophe, and to address the demand for justice and equity for those most impacted by climate harms. The message outside of the negotiating halls at … Read More.

Carbon Capture and Storage: An Expensive and Dangerous Plan for Louisiana

Louisiana is gaining an ever-increasing amount of national and international attention for Cancer Alley, an eighty-five-mile stretch along the Mississippi River lined with industrial plants, and the corridor’s role in perpetuating environmental racism and threats to public health. Simultaneously, the state’s policymakers are turning toward a new pernicious industrialization effort that threatens to impact Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities: carbon … Read More.

Oil and Gas’s Gift to California: A $5.7 Billion Cleanup Bill

There is a very good chance that California taxpayers will be on the hook for $500 million in future costs of plugging so-called “orphan” oil and gas wells, and a good chance the number could be as high as $5.7 billion, according to a new report.  The report, released Friday by the California Council on … Read More.

Investors Spend US Tax Dollars on Fracking. Again.

Fracking destroys communities, endangers health, and perpetuates our addiction to fossil fuels. Yet, US tax dollars are still being poured into these destructive projects. Recently, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) voted to exacerbate the climate crisis, approving over $450 million of US taxpayer dollars to finance two large fracking projects in the region of … Read More.

The Climate Crisis is Threatening Your Rights. Now Do You Care?

In December 2017, a picturesque beach-side community along California’s central coast became the newest victim of the climate crisis. The Thomas Fire burned over 280,000 acres, destroyed at least 1,000 structures, displaced over 107,000 people, and cost almost $2 billion in damages. Thomas held the title of the largest wildfire in California’s history for less … Read More.

Under Threat, Land Has a Critical Role to Play in Addressing Climate Crisis

“Land provides the principal basis for human livelihoods.” With this statement the IPCC begins the Summary for Policy Makers of its new Special Report on Climate Change and Land. In the report, the IPCC sends a clear message that we need urgent action to combat the climate crisis. Only by achieving “compatibility between specific land … Read More.

A Global Response to the Global Plastic Crisis

We are overwhelmed by plastic pollution. This is the last call to save the planet. Marine plastic pollution is now under the magnifying glass of a group of experts tasked with recommending a global response to the plastics crisis. Here’s what to expect at their meeting next week. Plastics are a product of the fossil … Read More.

Time to Roll Up Our Sleeves: Moving toward the Paris Implementation Guidelines

At the climate negotiations this December, countries must adopt guidelines for implementing the Paris Agreement at the national level. The Paris Implementation Guidelines are essential to ensuring that climate action around the world keeps global temperature rise below 1.5°C while respecting and protecting human rights. But after multiple rounds of talks, including a special session … Read More.

The Uncertain Future of Big Plastic

In the 1960s, investing in plastics was a safe bet, and the plastics boom showed no sign of slowing down. But in 2018, the future of the plastic industry is less clear. In the US, plastic production is ramping up as natural gas fracking has led to extremely cheap feedstocks for plastic production. The plastic … Read More.

Rhode Island Becomes First State to Join Wave of Climate Litigation

In yet another frontier of the expanding struggle for climate justice, Rhode Island is the first US state to sue fossil fuel companies for the impacts of climate change. Climate change — with its rising sea levels and more frequent and severe natural disasters, like 2012’s Superstorm Sandy — is already impacting and extensively damaging … Read More.

Public Participation & Rights a Priority at Upcoming Climate Meeting

From April 30 to May 10, countries will come together for a United Nations climate meeting, to continue to make progress toward implementing the Paris Agreement and meeting key goals at this year’s COP24 climate conference in Poland. To ensure positive climate outcomes that benefit both the planet and communities across the world, we must … Read More.

Rights for Ambition: Talanoa Dialogue Presents Opportunity to Increase Climate Ambition While Respecting Rights

When countries adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, they agreed to convene a “facilitative dialogue,” which would allow countries to come together to evaluate the world’s progress toward the goals of the Agreement. At last year’s climate talks, countries adopted the Talanoa Dialogue as the concept for this facilitative dialogue. The Talanoa Dialogue platform provides … Read More.

Tackling Gender Disparity at the Intersection of Human Rights and Climate Change

On the eve of International Women’s Day, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted a new General Recommendation on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change. It marks a major milestone in tackling the particular impacts climate change has on the rights of women and girls … Read More.

Hey! Have You Been Subpoenaed by Exxon Yet?

In what has become the go-to intimidation tactic for Exxon and its allies, Exxon has announced that it is launching yet another baseless, vexatious discovery process designed to prove that every city, state, journalist, and nonprofit that investigates the company is part of a massive conspiracy to suppress its constitutional rights. Exxon’s latest targets (and … Read More.

German Court Grants Peruvian Farmer’s Appeal Against RWE

On November 13, a German appeals court agreed to review evidence supporting arguments by Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya in his case against German energy giant RWE for the company’s contributions to climate change impacts that are now threatening his Andean home. Lliuya argues that RWE, as one of the world’s biggest emitters of carbon … Read More.

A Good Month for Climate Justice – A Bad Month for ExxonMobil

Exxon’s efforts to avoid accountability and the company’s campaign of intimidation against CIEL and partners just hit a huge roadblock… In 2015, the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys General opened investigations into whether ExxonMobil misled consumers, investors, and the public about the science linking the burning of their products to climate change. In an effort … Read More.

The Growing Climate Rights Movement

By Alyssa Johl, Senior Attorney As the international community prepares for the Paris Climate Agreement to take effect on November 4, there are many reasons to celebrate this historic moment. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shared his reflections: “What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is … Read More.

For a Successful Climate Agreement: Women Have to Be in the Room

By Stacey Morales and Geffen Kozikaro, Early Warning System Interns As world leaders prepare for the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris in late November, the international community must recognize that women—who are the majority of the world’s poor—are among those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, we must … Read More.

Liability for Climate (In)action: Who Will be Next?

By Alyssa Johl, Senior Attorney, CIEL Climate & Energy Program Reprinted with permission from the Business and Human Rights Resource Center. This summer, we celebrated a big win for the climate.  In a lawsuit brought by Urgenda and nearly 900 co-plaintiffs against the Dutch government (Urgenda Foundation et al. v. The Netherlands), the District Court … Read More.

Dear Tri-Caucus: Introducing the Tri-Caucus (Part II)

By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program Dearest Friends, Colleagues, It is hard to believe that a year has passed since we formed the Tri-Caucus to improve coordination between those who focus specifically on rights related to REDD+. As we finalize last-minute logistics for the upcoming UN climate negotiations – the Conference of … Read More.

Introducing the Tri-Caucus: “It Takes a Village”

By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program In the world of UN climate negotiations, in which 194 official parties, as well as hundreds of observers and representatives from civil society and indigenous groups, have different and complex agendas and priorities, meaningful progress to reduce emissions is a challenging feat. Ensuring that progress respects … Read More.

Going Back to Bali, to Bali, to Bali…

We’re reporting back  from Bali, Indonesia, where the February meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board took place, and excited to share an update on the progress we made and the challenges we face ahead! The GCF was created by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change  in 2010 to serve as the primary … Read More.

After Doha: “We Will Not be Silenced!”

Now that the dust from Doha has settled and 2013 is off and running, we’ve had a chance to reflect on how the UN climate talks have, once again, left us asking… What have we achieved? How have we advanced the debate? Where do we go from here? Like many other civil society groups, our … Read More.

Rio+20 Outcome: The Anthropocene Challenge

By Marcos Orellana, Rio de Janeiro On June 20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) officially started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The Conference opened with a documentary, Welcome to the Anthropocene, which was introduced by the UN’s Secretary-General.  The documentary visually portrays the alteration in Earth’s natural cycles induced by human activities. … Read More.

Rio+20 and Sustainable Development

By Amanda Rude, former CIEL legal intern As several CIEL attorneys and alumni head south to participate in the much-anticipated Rio+20 Conference, I wanted to share some of my insights as the “greenest” (i.e. youngest) member of the CIEL delegation…

Great Rainforest or the Greatest Rainforest?

By Amanda Kistler, Communications Manager On Thursday, January 12th, 2012 CIEL scientist Matt Finer presented as part of Amazon Watch’s GreenBag Lunch series with this auspicious title, riffing off Stephen Colbert’s rhetorical question he poses to anyone that might not agree with his hyperbolic categorization. However, even Colbert would find few, if any, who would … Read More.

What’s at Stake at Durban? We Are.

By Kristen Hite, Director, Climate Change Program In recent years we’ve seen global predictions on climate change becoming increasingly dire.  In recent weeks it’s gone from bad to worse:  The International Energy Association, often criticized for how its future projections of energy production rely too heavily on fossil fuels and nuclear energy just issued a … Read More.

Message to President Obama: FREE AMERICA from the Tyranny of Oil

After six days and 322 arrests (and counting), the Tar Sands Action is in full effect.  This two-week long protest is being staged on the sidewalk in front of the White House in Washington, DC, plainly visible to government employees, diplomats and tourists alike.  Concerned citizens have travelled from all 50 states and Canada to … Read More.

The “New Normal”: Food in the 21st Century

By Baskut Tuncak, Senior Attorney Environmental Health Program The global food system is broken.  Worldwide, 925 million are undernourished.  The Asia-Pacific region ranks highest in terms of number of people that are hungry and sub-Saharan Africa leads on a percentage basis.  In Niger, for example, one in two children suffers from malnutrition and one in … Read More.

UN Security Council Misses Critical Opportunity to Take Action on Climate Change

By Alyssa Johl and Hana Heineken At the end of Wednesday’s Security Council open debate on the security implications of climate change, Council members reached consensus on a Presidential Statement recognizing the link between security and climate change  (see our July 19 blog for background on this issue).  While this statement fails to call for … Read More.

UN Security Council Debates the Security Implications of Climate Change

By Erica Woodruff, Legal Intern Tomorrow, the UN Security Council will host an open debate on the international peace and security implications of climate change. CIEL’s Hana Heineken will be attending and tweeting live from the debate (follow Hana’s updates @ciel_tweets). While most people think of global warming as an environmental issue, the climate crisis … Read More.

The Real Cost of Coal

By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program Last time I blogged, I wrote about how coal-based power projects are not as cheap as they seem.  This is because coal projects have a number of hidden social and environmental costs or externalities that are either under-valued or excluded from the typical economic costs calculus.   Today, … Read More.

Marching on Hot Coals

By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program On March 1, 2011, activists will hold rallies in cities around the world to mark a Day of Action, calling on the World Bank to phase out lending for fossil fuel generated power. For those who can’t attend in person, there will be virtual actions on the … Read More.

Hidden Stories and the Power of Law

It is beautiful. Ten days ago, a NASA satellite took this image, a reminder that we are blessed to live on a planet rich with water and green with abundant life.  Seen from 440 miles above the Arctic Circle, the earth seems peaceful, perfect and unchanging. Yet, there are other, hidden stories in this image—important … Read More.

US Clears Test of Genetically Modified Trees in Southern US

The test is meant to see if the trees, eucalyptuses with a foreign gene meant to help them withstand cold weather, can become a new source of wood for pulp and paper, and for biofuels, in the Southern timber belt. Eucalyptus trees generally cannot now be grown north of Florida because of occasional freezing spells. … Read More.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles…for Carbon

The October 23rd issue of Science has an interesting study, “Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error,” in which the authors contend that across-the-board exemption of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from bioenergy — the use of plant materials known as biomass for the production of renewable fuels — is improper in greenhouse gas regulations, if emissions … Read More.