Guarini Center

Global Warming or Nuclear Meltdown? The Future of Nuclear Power After Fukushima
2011-11-30 | NY
Richard Stewart, University Professor and John Edward Sexton Professor of Law, moderated the November 30 Milbank Tweed Forum. Titled “Global Warming or Nuclear Meltdown? The Future of Nuclear Power After Fukushima,” the discussion took on issues ranging from fears of nuclear proliferation to the recent crisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and, on the plus side, whether nuclear power can provide stable, secure, low-carbon electricity and curb climate change. Panelists included Michael Levi, a senior fellow and director of the program on energy security and climate change at the Council of Foreign Relations; William McCollum, chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates three nuclear and 11 coal-fired plants; and Christopher Paine, nuclear program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In his introduction to the discussion, Stewart, who is also the director of the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, noted that nearly all of the nuclear plants in the U.S. started construction before 1975 and that “ten years ago one would have said that the nuclear industry is moribund, there are not going to be any more new plants in the United States.” Then, he noted, “there was a change in direction and attitude” due to growth in energy demand, rising energy prices, concerns about energy security, and global warming. “There was talk in the 2005 era of a U.S. nuclear renaissance,” Stewart said. But, he added, “at this point the bloom is somewhat off the renaissance,” because of a drop in electric demand caused by the recession and safety concerns raised by the Fukushima incident. Additionally, Stewart noted, the U.S. has not figured out how it will dispose of its nuclear waste — the subject of his most recent book. “There’s a complex web of economic and environmental and security, as well as political and legal issues here,” he said.
Watch the full video of the event (1 h 13 min)

Dialogue on the Trade Dimensions of Rio+20
2011-10-03
The green economy within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication is one of the themes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Brazil in 2012. The trade dimension of sustainable development and the green economy have so far attracted a more limited attention despite the importance of the issues and concerns related to green protectionism, technology transfer and the existing framework of multilateral rules within which any sustainable development policy is set.
Chapter 2 of Agenda 21 stipulates that trade, environment and development policies should be mutually supportive. The green economy has emerged as a potential new paradigm and an enabling tool to advance sustainable development. In that sense, it may have the potential to provide new trade and investment impetus to developing country economies. The green economy, through trade-led growth, could become a pro-development income-generating instrument that will directly contribute to achieving sustainable development, as set out at the 1992 Rio Summit. However, there are key conditions for a green economy to become a vehicle for sustainable development and areas where international action could promote an inclusive, broad-based and equitable transition towards a green economy. The Rio outcome should play an important role in advancing this agenda.

Serge Lepeltier, French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations, Holds Climate Discussions at NYU
2011-09-20
After having been on campus with French Minister for Ecology, Nathalie Kozcuisko-MOrizet, Serge Lepeltier, the French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations returned with his climate advisors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss climate finance in the lead up to the Durban climate conference. Participating were professors and fellows from NYU and its research partners, World Resources Institute and Environmental Defense Fund.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French Minister for Ecology, Discusses New Sources of Climate Finance
2011-04-11
French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport, and Housing Nathalie Koscuisko-Morizet was the lead speaker at “From Fast-Start to Long-Term Finance for Climate Protection: The Need for New Funding Sources,” a panel discussion held April 11 at NYU Law on mobilizing international finance to combat climate change. Other participants included Assistant U.N. Secretary General for Policy and Planning Robert Orr; Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the International Climate Program at the Environmental Defense Fund, University Professor Richard Stewart; and other climate finance experts.
Minister Koscuisko-Morizet announced that the French government will make financing for climate and development a priority when it hosts the G20/G8 later this year. Assistant Secretary General Orr emphasized that significant new sources of international public and private finance will be required to meet the $100 billion annual Cancun target for climate financing for developing countries. The minister proposed innovative levies on international financial transactions and international maritime and aviation transport and leveraging private climate investment while also building climate-based development aid.
Following the public panel, a small private workshop was held on climate finance issues and opportunities in the upcoming international meetings and U.S. climate regulation. Participants included the panelists, the French ambassador to the United States, the French ambassador for climate change negotiations, the deputy governor of the Banque de France, and additional experts.

Second Abu Dhabi Workshop on Climate Finance
2011-01-21

On Thin Ice: International Law and Environmental Protection in a Melting Arctic
2010-10-23
On October 22, NYU School of Law hosted the Sixteenth Annual Herbert Rubin and Justice Rose Luttan Rubin International Law Symposium, titled “On Thin Ice: International Law and Environmental Protection In a Melting Arctic.”
After introductory remarks by Herbert Rubin ’42, founder of Herzfeld & Rubin, and José Alvarez, who is Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law, the keynote lecture was delivered by Peter Taksøe-Jensen, the Danish ambassador to the United States and former United Nations assistant secretary general for legal affairs. Taksøe-Jensen described the current state of the Artic Ocean, and the potential for changes in access to the region. During summer months, Taksøe-Jensen said, more and more ice is melting each year. This is creating uncharted waters in the arctic region, allowing for potential new trade routes, tourism, and migration of marine life. One of the consequences is a new tension between the countries that border the Arctic as they plan for regulating this new area.
The first panel delved further into Taksøe-Jensen’s introduction, setting its sights on recent changes in the Arctic region and the responses of various nations to those changes. Moderator Peter Miljanich ’11, editor-in-chief of the Environmental Law Journal, paced the discussion, which featured: Betsy Baker, an assistant professor at Vermont Law School; Lisa Speer, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s International Oceans Program; and Ross Virginia, Myers Family Professor of Environmental Science at Dartmouth College. Panel two, moderated by NYU Journal of International Law and Politics Symposium Editor Margaret Graham ’11, discussed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Professor Katrina Wyman moderated the third and final panel, which explored the domestic and international approaches to conserving the diverse and vulnerable marine ecosystems in the Arctic region from the increasing threats of overfishing, ship strikes, and pollution from new commercial activities.
Watch the opening keynote
Watch the first panel

Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, Holds Roundtable
2010-09-23
On September 23, the Global Climate Finance Project at NYU Law hosted a consultative workshop on climate finance with Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action. Hedegaard discussed issues relating to climate finance with a group of NYU professors and fellows, as well as colleagues from Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Environmental Defense Fund, the Peterson Institute for Economics, the World Resources Institute, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Climate finance (the provision of public and private funds to finance climate mitigation and adaptation) is at the heart of the ongoing international climate discussions. A global deal on climate change will not be achieved without developed and developing countries agreeing on the amount, sources, and governance arrangements for climate finance. The commissioner emphasized the importance of effectively delivering the $30 billion in “fast-start finance” pledged in the Copenhagen Accord last year as a means of building trust between developed and developing countries, and promoting the legitimacy of ongoing negotiations.
Hedegaard confirmed the E.U.’s conviction that market forces, such as domestic cap-and-trade systems, will play a crucial role in addressing climate change. Participants discussed how to link domestic cap-and-trade markets in the future, particularly as the political process in each country was likely to lead to the emergence of several markets with very different design features. A number of participants were pessimistic that U.S. cap-and-trade legislation would be passed in the near future, and discussed the possibility of other avenues for regulation and harmonization.
The workshop engaged in lively debate on a number of other contentious issues, including the institutions and MRV structures for climate finance, the use of border carbon adjustments, the U.S. domestic political obstacles to implementing proposed international levies (for example, on bunker fuels), and the role of corporations in the current climate change negotiations and in any future climate finance regime.

Carbon Capture & Storage Global Legal Symposium
2010-03-15
On March 15, legal scholars and practitioners, along with engineers, geologists, and policy makers, came together at the Law School for the two-day Carbon Capture & Storage Global Legal Symposium. CCS, as it is known, aims to combat global climate change by trapping carbon dioxide emissions from places such as refineries and factories, and, then sequestering it underground. Each step of the process–capture, transportation, and storage–raises legal and regulatory issues, and these were the subject of the symposium. The gathering drew participants from around the world, and served as a forum for the International Energy Agency to unveil a model CCS legal and regulatory framework.
The principal organizers of the symposium were Richard Stewart and Richard Macrory. Stewart is a University Professor; John Edward Sexton Professor of Law; chair and faculty director of the Hauser Global Law School Program; and director of the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental Law and Land Use Law. Macrory, a professor of environmental law at University College London Faculty of Laws (UCL), is also currently a senior global research fellow at the Hauser Global Law School. The Guarini Center and UCL jointly sponsored the symposium, along with the Global CCS Institute of Australia.

Honorable Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water (Australia)
2009-09-21
The Honourable Penny Wong, Senator for South Australia and Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Water, visited NYU School of Law September 21, 2009 to discuss the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The event, hosted by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law and the Environmental Law Society, gave students and faculty a chance to hear first hand Australia’s plan for an international political agreement to fight climate change.
In preparation for December’s Copenhagen conference, where the United Nations hoped to come to an agreement on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, Wong, Australia’s first Minister for Climate Change and Water, introduced a plan that would allow nations to construct a climate change plan that fits their national circumstances within the framework of an overarching agreement. The plan would move away from the strict compliance regime of the Kyoto Protocol, hoping to reach a strong environmental outcome while permitting flexibility of actions over time, allowing for the unique conditions each nation faces, and supporting a range of solutions. “A sound vehicle will steer us toward broad participation and strong ambition,” said Wong, who was in New York for the Secretary-General’s High Level Meeting on Climate Change at the United Nations General Assembly this week. “A flawed vehicle will drive countries away from global cooperation.”
Under Australia’s proposed plan, nations would utilize “national schedules” to come to a world-wide agreement, which could be renegotiated to become more environmentally effective over time. A schedule might include plans for emissions targets, reducing deforestation, and developing clean energy. “Commitments won’t be one-size-fits-all,” said Wong. “They will be differentiated, and the actions countries take to fulfill those commitments will be varied in nature, reflecting different national circumstances.” The schedules will help in negotiations, allowing developing countries to ease themselves into the climate change fight, while developed countries would be expected to set more ambitious economy-wide emission reduction targets. This approach, according to Wong, is compatible with a number of other major official proposals submitted to the U.N. “Ideally, each country would put forward its own draft national schedule [in advance of Copenhagen],” said Wong. “The international community could examine schedules to determine if efforts were sufficiently ambitious, and if not, call for and negotiate increased efforts.”
After her speech, Wong fielded questions from faculty and students during a discussion led by Adjunct Professor Jacob Werksman, who is also the director of the Institutions and Governance Program at the World Resources Institute. Wong reiterated the importance of reaching an agreement in Copenhagen. “This is where the role of leaders is so important,” she said. “This agreement absolutely can be done. It’s a question of whether people have the political will to cut that deal.”

Abu Dhabi Conference on Climate Change: Financing Green Development
2009-05-03 - 2009-05-05
This conference, held May 3-5 in Abu Dhabi was focussed on building robust and workable climate finance mechanisms that will secure developing country participation, support sustainable development, and leverage cost-effective solutions to mitigating climate change. Successfully meeting the challenge of climate change is not only an environmental imperative, but also a huge economic challenge as well as potential economic opportunity. It will require both a new global agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol and new financial arrangements to generate swift large-scale investments in mitigation efforts—by 2030, an additional USD 100 billion annually will be required for mitigation in developing countries. Yet the financial mechanisms that currently exist as part of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and elsewhere are not up to the task of delivering either this level of funds or associated technologies in ways that will successfully engage developing countries and further their development.
This conference addressed the structure, regulation, and governance of the various existing and proposed new forms of climate mitigation finance, with a focus on their implications for developing countries. The conference engaged a select group of high level developing and developed country policy-makers and academics, representatives of the climate finance industry, multinational businesses, international organizations, and NGOs.
