Climate Law Creep

Climate change is inevitable. Devastating climate change is not, if we act in time. Potentially catastrophic but manageable challenges such as climate change compel legal responses.

This talk has explored two competing trends in the legal responses: the steady development of climate-related legal and political measures versus countermoves designed to undercut the emerging rule of law around climate change. Specifically, the talk explored two recent conflicting developments in U.S. climate law: the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA (one of the most important climate law cases in U.S. history) and Congress’ surprising countermove, which has dramatically accelerated development of the rule of law around climate change in the United States.