Guarini Center

American Gas Exports: Regulation, Finance, & International Trade
2015-02-17 08:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
On February 17, 2015 the NYU Environmental Law Journal and NYU Environmental Law Society in conjunction with Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law
Invite You to a Discussion on American Gas Exports: Regulation, Finance, & International Trade
To register please click here
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 8:00am – 2:30pm
NYU School of Law
Lipton Hall, D’Agostino Hall
108 West Third Street
New York, NY 10012
RSVP here 5 CLE credits available for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys.
This Symposium will provide a forum for experts in their field—representing government, finance, the legal practice and academia—to discuss the future of liquid natural gas exports from the United States. How much natural gas should, and will, the Department of Energy (DOE) approve to be exported? What are the financing implications of the recent changes to the DOE approval process? In what ways may the law of the World Trade Organization constrain U.S. policy regarding natural gas exports? These questions and more will be explored.
Introductory Remarks
Richard Stewart, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Panel One: Breaking Down the Public Interest Determination -The Limits of What the Government Will Approve
Robert Fee, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Energy
Vignesh Gowrishankar, Policy Manager, NRDC
Sugandha Tuladhar, NERA Economic Consulting
Katrina Wyman, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law (moderator)
Anthony Yuen, Citi Group
Panel Two: Bringing American Gas to Market – Financing and Infrastructure Issues
Jean-Pierre Boudrias, Goldman Sachs
Timothy Puko, Energy Reporter, The Wall Street Journal (moderator)
Robert Seber, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Eric Silverman, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Branko Terzic, Former CEO & Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Keynote Address and Lunch
C. Boyden Gray, Boyden Gray & Associates LLP
Panel Three: International Trade Issues – Opportunities and Constraints posed by America’s International Trade Agreements
Alan M. Dunn, Stewart and Stewart
Spencer Griffith JD ’82, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Robert Howse, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Joanna Langille JD ’11, NYU School of Law (moderator)

NY Green Bank: Looking Back on Its First Year and Plans for the Future
2015-02-11 | NY
Caroline Angoorly, Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, NY Green Bank
After agreeing in principle to its first seven transactions, what’s next for the NY Green Bank?
On February 11, 2015, the Guarini Center hosted Caroline Angoorly, Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director of NY Green Bank, and Paul Francis, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Guarini Center, to discuss this question.
The mission of the NY Green Bank is to accelerate clean energy deployment in New York State by helping to open up financing markets for clean energy projects. To accomplish this mission, Angoorly explained, NY Green Bank focuses on transactions at the “near frontier” of commercial investment – transactions that are scalable, replicable, and based on proven technologies, yet not being undertaken by commercial lenders because they involve a structure, scale, or tenor of investment that is outside the norm for commercial lenders. The Bank is a division of NYSERDA.
Angoorly described a successful first year for the NY Green Bank. The Bank has allocated its initial capital of $200 million to seven transactions that have been agreed to in principle; the Bank’s investment in these transactions has been matched by private sector investment of $600 million.
Four categories of financial products have been offered this year by the NY Green Bank – (1) credit enhancement to alleviate default risk; (2) warehousing/aggregation to provide short-term support; (3) asset loans and investments to provide long-term support; (4) and composites of those three categories. These categories of products are a result of the NY Green Bank’s collaborative Request for Proposals process, which Angoorly emphasized is not based on a pre-existing slate of specific products. This flexibility to the needs of the market, Angoorly said, is a key component of the Bank’s strategy to accelerate clean energy deployment in New York State.
Angoorly also discussed the capitalization of NY Green Bank. Initially contemplated at $1 billion, capitalization of the remaining $800 million is subject to approval in an ongoing proceeding at the New York State Department of Public Service. In making the case for the need to capitalize the remaining $800 million, Angoorly pointed to a Booz & Company study estimating clean energy investment opportunities in New York State at over $85 billion.
Going forward, said Angoorly, the NY Green Bank must build on its success and execute. The Bank will continue strengthening its portfolio, its internal processes, and its participation with other domestic and international green financing entities.

Reforming Electricity Regulation in New York State: Lessons from the United Kingdom
2014-11-18 | NY
On November 18, 2014, the Guarini Center hosted an invitation only roundtable discussion exploring applications of British electricity regulatory policy for New York State.
The roundtable explored the U.K.’s experience in developing, negotiating and implementing RIIO. Participants at the meeting included leading British representatives from government, industry, and academia as well as American economists, environmental advocates, electric industry representatives and New York State Department of Public Service staff.
This workshop was made possible by the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Read the roundtable report and the accompanying issue brief on utility regulation in the UK.

Reforming New York’s Energy Vision: Implications for Wholesale Electricity Markets
2014-11-03 18:30 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Faculty Library, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Sponsored by Latham & Watkins LLP
On November 3rd, the Guarini Center held an event titled, Reforming New York’s Energy Vision: Implications for Wholesale Electricity Markets at NYU Law. The event addressed the New York Public Service Commission’s “Reforming the Energy Vision (REV)” initiative to reform New York’s electric energy industry and regulatory practices to promote greater system-wide efficiency, greater deployment of renewable energy and “distributed” energy resources, and greater use of technologies, products and services to increase demand elasticity and efficiency. The REV could have profound operating and legal implications for wholesale power markets in New York (and potentially in other parts of the U.S.). This event provided a forum for experts to discuss these implications and the factors that should be considered while the REV initiative is still under consideration by the New York Public Service Commission.

Opening remarks by:
Michael Gergen (’92), Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Panelists:
Clarke Bruno (’92), Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Anbaric Transmission
Richard B. Miller (’87), Director, Energy Markets Policy Group, Con Edison
John P. Reese, Senior Vice President, U.S. Power Generating Company
Moderated by:
David L. Schwartz, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Monday, November 3, 2014 6:30 – 8pm
Wine and cheese reception to follow
NYU School of Law
Faculty Library (3rd Floor), Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

Latham & Watkins LLP is dedicated to working with clients to help them achieve their business goals and overcome legal challenges anywhere in the world. From a global platform of offices in the world’s major financial, business and regulatory centers, the firm’s lawyers help clients succeed.

Speaker Bios:
Michael Gergen a partner in Latham & Watkins LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, is a member of the Energy Regulatory and Markets Practice as well as the Project Finance Practice.
Mr. Gergen has extensive experience developing practical applications of economics, finance and regulatory law to assist clients involved in the electric, natural gas and other network industries in the United States and internationally. Mr. Gergen represents entities involved in electric generation, transmission and distribution, natural gas transportation, storage and distribution, electric and natural gas marketing and trading, and finance, as well as international governments and financial institutions. Mr. Gergen also assists clients regarding federal and state financing support and incentive programs for clean energy technologies, products and services.
Mr. Gergen has assisted clients on a wide range of transactional, controversy, policy and legislative matters and has represented clients both in commercial negotiations and before various federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and various state public utility commissions, and numerous federal and state courts and arbitral bodies. Mr. Gergen also has served as an economist for an investor-owned public utility, as well as an economic consultant for a state energy commission.
Mr. Gergen is listed as a leading energy attorney in Who’s Who Legal and in Chambers USA, which describes him as having “developed a positive reputation in the industry as ‘a quick, clever and creative lawyer.’” He has given a variety of speeches on energy regulatory and policy matters. He is a member of the Federal Energy Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Mr. Gergen was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2012 as a recommended attorney in Energy Law. Mr. Gergen is an Adjunct Professor of Law and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.

Clarke Bruno, Clarke Bruno oversees Anbaric’s transmission projects in the Mid-Atlantic region and helps lead its microgrid business. He has over two decades of experience in law, energy and environmental policy, and project development. As counsel to former New Jersey Governor Corzine, he helped craft the State’s initiatives to upgrade the grid, spur renewable energy projects, and increase infrastructure investments. During Mayor Bloomberg’s first term in New York City, Mr. Bruno won dismissal of four major class action lawsuits. Before entering government, he was a regulatory lawyer and litigator for nine years and clerked for a federal judge for one year. Mr. Bruno chairs the NYC Bar Association’s energy committee for the 2012-2015 term.
Mr. Bruno graduated with honors from Swarthmore College where he won a Thomas J. Watson fellowship and cum laude from New York University School of Law where he was awarded an Arthur Garfield Hays fellowship.

Richard B. Miller, is Director of the Energy Markets Policy Group at Con Edison where he is responsible for federal energy policy issues, particularly as they relate to the operation of wholesale markets and the bulk electric transmission system. Previously, he was an assistant general counsel in the regulatory services department at Con Edison where he worked on legal matters relating to the Con Edison steam system, renewable power and energy efficiency. From 1998-2003, he was Senior Vice-President for Energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (where he oversaw City energy policy). Prior to 1998, he was an energy regulatory attorney for Cohen, Dax & Koenig in Albany, New York, and a litigation associate at Cohen, Weiss and Simon and Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City.
He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University School of Law.

John Reese, a Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs for US Power Generating Company. Mr. Reese has been responsible for ongoing communications with city, state and federal officials and energy policy-making bodies on wholesale electric markets, and environmental and electric regulatory legislative issues. He is also responsible for project development including ongoing proposals to add generation in Brooklyn and Queens.
Prior to joining US Power Generating Company, Mr. Reese served as both Executive Deputy of the New York State Public Service Commission (2006-2007) and as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Commission from 2003-2006. As Vice President of Governmental Affairs for Reliant/Orion Power Holdings, Mr. Reese represented the New York City assets now held by US Power Generating Company as well as over fifty low impact hydroelectric facilities throughout the northeast. Previously, Mr. Reese served as the Deputy Director of the Independent Power Producers of New York, Sr. Technical Advisor to the US Department of Energy, and Director of Development and Evaluation in the New York State Energy Office. He served on the New York Governor’s and Mayor’s Task Forces for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Independent Power Producers of New York, and serves as an advisor to the New York City Fund Clean Tech Committee, the Chariot Companies, the NYSERDA environmental research programs and Windinspire .
Mr. Reese received his MBA from Russell Sage College and his BA from Pennsylvania State University.

David Schwartz is a partner in the Finance Department of Latham & Watkins LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. He serves as global Chair of the Energy Regulatory and Markets Practice, is a member of the Project Finance Group, and is Co-chair of the firm’s Global Energy – Power Industry Group. He has extensive experience representing entities involved in electric generation, transmission and distribution, electric and gas marketing and trading, and gas transportation and distribution.
Mr. Schwartz has been active in the formation of the developing electricity markets in the United States; led transactional and regulatory teams in mergers and acquisitions and divestitures of energy companies and assets; litigated contract, rate and transmission access disputes; and drafted federal and state energy legislation. He also has extensive experience in negotiating power purchase and sale agreements, electric transmission agreements, natural gas transportation agreements, energy management agreements, and electric and gas interconnection agreements.
Mr. Schwartz regularly advises clients on energy matters before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), various state public utility commissions, the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Energy (DOE).
Mr. Schwartz is consistently recognized as a top energy attorney in Corporate Counsel Magazine, Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who Legal: Energy, Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and The Legal 500 US, which recently selected him as a “Leading Lawyer” for his transactional energy practice.
Mr. Schwartz is a member of the American Bar Association and has held leadership positions in the Energy Bar Association.

Green Trade and Climate Action on the Road to COP21
2014-09-24 | NY
Shifting to a cleaner energy mix is essential to limit global temperature rise to the agreed 2-degree Celsius target as highlighted by the latest IPCC report. In order to achieve this, costs of renewable energy have to come down and markets need to be strengthened so as to allow for a scale-up of innovation, production, and deployment of sustainable energy technologies. Trade policy has an important role to play in this respect. The past few years have seen significant political momentum toward bringing down trade barriers in some of the relevant clean energy goods. Examples include the APEC initiative to reduce tariffs on a list of environmental goods, US President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, and the launch of trade negotiations on an environmental goods agreement (EGA) in July this year by 14 like-minded WTO members.
The launch of EGA negotiations offers a timely opportunity for trade to effectively contribute to climate action if delegations involved identify, include, and prioritise clean energy goods as a first deliverable. The initiative has the potential to contribute positively through the upcoming COP 20 in Lima to the much-anticipated COP 21 in Paris in December 2015. Against this background, ICTSD and the Guarini Center (NYU School of Law) will convene a dialogue on green trade. The purpose of the dialogue is to raise awareness of the role of trade in climate change and sustainable energy among a non-trade audience; the event will underscore the positive role trade-related initiatives can play for climate action. The dialogue will involve the climate constituency in the process in order to ensure that a future environmental trade agreement delivers for climate change.
Speakers
James Bacchus (Chair, Global Practice at Greenberg Traurig)
Richard Stewart (Professor, NYU School of Law)
Michael Liebreich (Chief Executive, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, United Kingdom)
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, (Chief Executive Officer, ICTSD)
Sourabh Sen (Chairman and Co-Founder, Astonfield Renewables)

Roundtable with Peruvian Minister of Environment
2014-09-24 | NY
Countries have agreed to write a new climate agreement to begin in 2020 and replace the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement will be finalized at the 21st UN Climate Convention Conference of the Parties (COP) in 2015 in Paris, but the text of the agreement will be finished this year at COP20 in Lima in December.
As host of COP20, Manual Pulgar Vidal, Minister of the Environment for Peru will be the President of the COP. The Peruvian COP Presidency and the Guarini Center are hosting an academic roundtable on issues related to climate change, and in particular, related to the outcome of the Lima COP.

Evolving Financial Landscape for Renewable Energy
2014-09-10 18:00 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Renewable energy has come to a financial crossroads: The renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC), which has fueled the growth of wind energy, expired on January 1 of this year, and Congress has yet to decide whether to renew it. The solar investment tax credit (ITC), which has encouraged the growth of solar, will expire in 2016. How can the US continue to drive the growth of renewable energy without relying on tax subsidies? What can our government do for us?

In his opening remarks for the “Evolving Financial Landscape for Renewable Energy” panel held on Wednesday, September 10, former Governor George Pataki gave a corporate spin to John F. Kennedy’s famous words on the subject: “Don’t go to Washington to say, ‘What can you do to give us a chance to have green energy?’ Drive the technology. Change the paradigm so that we can have solar panels that outperform traditional energy. Go to the marketplace.”
The power of consumer choice was the theme of the night’s conversation, which was hosted by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law. Eli Katz LLM ’04, partner at Chadbourne & Parke, moderated the panel, which featured Neil Auerbach LLM ’84, CEO and managing partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners; Steve Corneli, senior vice president of Policy & Strategy at NRG Energy; Dana Sands, managing director at TAG Energy Partners; and Jason Segal, managing director at Aldwych Capital Partners and a managing partner of the Environment and Renewables Group in New York. Pataki himself is now counsel at Chadbourne and Parke, which sponsored the event, where his practice focuses on energy, environmental, and corporate matters.

We don’t have to choose between having either a vibrant economy or renewable energy, Pataki stressed, calling that a “false dichotomy and a false choice.” Renewable energy can be economically competitive. As an example, he pointed to the rebuilding of Battery Park City after 9/11. When he insisted that all new buildings be constructed green, companies balked at what they called a financial burden. Yet Solaire, the 27-story residential tower now adjacent to the World Trade Center site and the first green residential high-rise in North America, gets a premium on rentals because it’s green.
“Invent, invest, create,” he told the audience, “and allow us to have the confidence that regardless of the political situation, the economic situation and the social situation are going to make renewable energy the energy of the future.”
The last ten years have shown a “truly phenomenal” cost reduction for renewables, Corneli pointed out, thanks in part to innovative business models and advances in technology. The price-competitiveness has changed the landscape. “We are on the cusp of a whole new set of drivers for renewable deployment that are not policy-independent but they’re not as policy-dependent as our industry has been in the past.”
As the cost of renewables decreases, consumers will be likelier to switch to renewables, he said. Meanwhile, utilities will raise their prices to make up for their lost revenue—thereby making renewables even more attractive.
Despite the promise of all these advances, however, Auerbach asserted that renewables still needs some measure of “affirmative action” from the government. First, consumer demand for power is not increasing, so there isn’t a drive to adopt new power sources; indeed, even as we use more electric devices and equipment, these devices themselves have become more energy-efficient. Secondly, because renewables provide an intermittent source of energy (for instance, solar energy is hard to come by at night), utility companies are less willing to go through the complex, expensive process of integrating them into the transmission and distribution system.
Regardless of these challenges, Auerbach speculated that three years from now, as more communities start moving off-grid and more consumers adopt “behind-the-meter” technologies like solar panel arrays, “The very function of the electric utility is going to be debated.”

Dept. of Energy / GridWise Alliance Workshop on the Future of the Grid
2014-05-13 | NY
On May 13, 2014, the Guarini Center hosted the fourth regional “Future of the Grid” workshop organized by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and the GridWise Alliance. The workshop examined the electricity industry’s vision of how the grid must evolve to satisfy America’s changing energy needs.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Guarini Center Senior Fellow Jonathan Schrag highlighted that the Department of Energy’s workshops coincide with the New York State Public Service Commission’s (PSC) initiative to transform New York State’s energy industry and regulatory practices. “New York State’s energy leadership has opened a window of opportunity to reshape electricity markets based on sound technical and economic analysis,” he said.
In the months ahead, the Guarini Center will continue to work closely with the various stakeholders in the PSC proceedings to devise innovative policy proposals that promote environmentally and economically sound outcomes.

The Practice of Energy Law
2014-04-17 18:30 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Golding Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
The Practice of Energy Law, Insights from NYU Law Alumni at the forefront of the energy law field
Have you ever considered practicing energy law? Curious about what opportunities might exist in the field? Join us for a casual dinner with two NYU Law alumni who are at the forefront of the profession.
Please RSVP here. Students only. **Pizza will be served**
Speakers:

Eli M. Katz (LLM ’04), Partner, Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Phyllis J. Kessler (’72), Of Counsel, Duane Morris LLP

Eli M. Katz is a transactional lawyer who focuses on providing tax, legal and commercial advice to a broad range of clients in the energy and financial sectors. Many of Mr. Katz’s clients are active in the renewable energy and clean-tech industries where they operate across many sectors such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, transmission, demand side management and energy saving retrofits. Mr. Katz regularly advises his clients on energy tax credits, government incentive programs, project development and finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and deployment structures and all forms of leasing transactions both in the United States and abroad. Over the past few years, Mr. Katz has led pioneering transactions in the renewable energy sector including the first leveraged lease of a wind farm, the first levered tax equity transaction to use the Section 1603 cash grant and one of the first tax equity transactions with a prepaid power contract. Some of his recent client representations include NRG Energy, Terra-Gen Power, LS Power, First Reserve Energy Investors, Metlife, the AES Corporation, First Wind, GE Capital, US Bancorp, and Goldman Sachs.
Phyllis J. Kessler practices in the area of energy law, with a focus on provision of electricity and gas through alternative sources, representing both providers and customers for energy services, and energy efficiency. As part of this practice, she advises clients on on-site generation, renewables (solar, wind and biofuel), interconnection, line extension, energy efficiency projects, power and gas marketing, clean coal projects, submetering, mission critical and many other issues related to the deregulated energy markets. She has significant experience representing and counseling clients on all aspects of regulatory and deregulation business issues associated with regulated and deregulated energy issues. Ms. Kessler represents power authorities, energy marketers, energy project developers, financial institutions and large customers (industrial, commercial, data center, apartment house, non-profit, university and hospital). She also appears on behalf of such clients in federal and state court energy litigation matters and regulatory proceedings in various states.

Richard Miller ’87 of ConEd Examines Path to More Competitive and Green Electric System
2014-03-27 | NY
How do we move toward a greener electric system while encouraging competitive markets and reliable utility access? Richard Miller ’87, director of the Energy Markets Policy Group for Con Edison (ConEd) addressed this issue as the third speaker in the Energy Policy Discussion series hosted by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law.
Before entering into a complex discussion of the electric system’s future, Miller provided a layman’s overview of how electricity moves from generation plants to customers.
When it comes to electricity, he emphasized, a balance needs to be maintained between supply and demand. That is, when customers’ demand rises, generation—the supply—needs to be increased to meet it. But there is another option: customers can decrease their demand to meet the supply. This alternative, in which the customer reduces its demand, is called “demand response.”
“One of the goals of managing that electric system to generally try to make it cleaner and greener,” Miller said, “is to figure out ways that we can use that demand response more.”
From 1998 to 2003, Miller was senior vice president for energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In 2003, he moved to ConEd, where he served as assistant general counsel, stepping into his current role in 2008.
He discussed the restructuring that took place in the 1990s, after which ConEd—which had been fully vertically integrated—would no longer control the electricity from the plants to the power lines to the customer. The federal government had the power plants sold off, turning them into a separate industry; hand-in-hand with this, power generators were given open-access to the transmission system which in turn came to be overseen by new agencies like the New York Independent Systems Operator (NYISO). The goal: increased competition.
Legally, this also meant a major jurisdictional change: this market, which once fell under state jurisdiction, was suddenly subject to federal jurisdiction. The NYISO, for example, answers to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
This change has raised a key question: How can states promote renewable power despite this jurisdictional change? Miller highlighted Maryland’s beleaguered attempt to accomplish this goal. He also discussed plans to build more transmission for public policy reasons, and the benefits and disadvantages of relying on “demand response” to decrease customer demand.
In his closing, he referred the address given by Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York State Public Service Commission, during the “Utility Industry of the Future” symposium at NYU Law. She stated that the most cost-effective way to get to a better system is to use competitive markets.
“We all want a greener and cleaner system,” Miller concluded, “but we all want to do it in the least expensive way possible.”

Audrey Zibelman, NY PSC Chair, Plots New York’s Utility Policy
2014-03-03 | NY
Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York State Public Service Commission since September 2013, set her vision for state utility policy in her keynote address at the “Utility Industry of the Future” symposium. The event was sponsored by the NYU Environmental Law Journal and NYU Environmental Law Society in collaboration with the Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law.
Paraphrasing Ken Olsen, a famous American computer engineer who said, “Nobody’s ever going to want a personal computer,” Zibelman made a comparison to the once-underestimated movement toward alternative energy. Zibelman has extensive experience in the public, private and not-for-profit energy and electricity sectors, and is a recognized expert in energy policy, markets and Smart Grid innovation. New York, she said, has an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on economic, efficiency, and security bases, and the technology will exceed our expectations.
Zibelman emphasized the importance of identifying the critical factors that will drive changes in energy development and transmission, formulating a policy vision for the state of New York, and identifying the key obstacles to overcome. Some of those obstacles include updating infrastructure, much of which is outdated and must be replaced. Other important considerations going forward include building a resilient system that will enable us to face the challenges of climate change, the need to take cyber and fiscal security into account, and facilitating greater customer engagement in the electricity business by supplying customers with more information and opportunities for choice. Utility companies will need to adjust to a changing demographic that is accustomed to having information at their fingertips, Zibelman noted.
The overarching theme of Zibelman’s speech was that the increasing importance of clean energy will force the industry to develop in ways that are not currently anticipated. Regulatory flexibility is key, as is getting things right in these first few years to lay the groundwork for success in the future. Finally, the industry should not underestimate the importance of educating customers so they understand what changes are being made and why. To that end, Zibelman underscored the need for the government, utilities, NGOs, and vendors to work together.

Richard Kauffman Sees Promise for Climate Change in Green Banks
2014-02-20 | NY
On February 20, Richard Kauffman presented the second installment of the Energy Policy Discussion series. In February of last year, Kauffman was appointed the first-ever Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York, and since June 2013, he has also filled the role of chairman for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
His lecture was, in many ways, an excellent counterpart to the series’ previous installment with Daniel Esty, former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Like Esty, Kauffman emphasized that the current context for promoting renewable energy growth is difficult. “The headwinds against a robust renewable energy program are in some sense getting stronger,” he said. Federal financial support for renewable energy is dropping off. And because natural gas remains cheap, cleaner yet more expensive forms of energy like wind and solar power aren’t catching on.
However, he said, “we have room to tack against these trends.” Decreasing federal financial support is incentive to look at how we can reduce the “soft costs” of renewables, which can be burdensome. In December 2013, for example, the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory calculated that for solar panel installations, such non-hardware costs can mean up to 64% of the total. One way we can reduce soft costs, Kauffman said, is by eliminating financial inefficiencies.
New York State is taking the initiative in promoting renewable energy. One project is the Green Bank, inspired by Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority—the original “green bank.” Rather than subsidize renewable energy, the Green Bank strives to close gaps in access to funding.
Kauffman also suggested that greater competition among utilities companies and greater interaction between them and their customers can lead to more innovation. He encouraged utilities companies to respond to customers more efficiently by using “smart software.”
Before taking on the role of chairman, Kauffman was the senior advisor to US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. He was also CEO of Good Energies, now known as Bregal Energy, and chaired the Global Financial Group at Goldman Sachs.

Daniel Esty Offers Solution to “Fundamental Breakdown” in Environmental Policy
2014-02-03 | NY
On the morning of Monday, February 3, Daniel Esty wrapped up his three-year term as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). That evening, he arrived at NYU School of Law, where Professor Richard Stewart, director of the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, welcomed him for his first post-DEEP talk.
Esty’s lecture conveyed the practiced capability and finesse needed to gather bipartisan support for an innovative environmental strategy. His manner was in utter contrast to what he described as today’s national failure: the “very fundamental breakdown in Washington when it comes to energy policy, climate change policy, [and] environmental policy.” He described a stagnant federal government that has moved little on the environment since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty of 1992.
In response to Washington’s foot-dragging, he and Governor Dannel Malloy pushed for fresh thinking at the state level. DEEP, Esty said, is better spelled “DEEEP”—energy, environment, and economy. It’s the “triple E agenda.”
“You cannot pursue a clean energy agenda without simultaneously pursuing cheaper and more reliable energy,” he argued. That is, people are far likelier to support clean energy if it’s easy to finance and cheaper than fossil fuels.
So, among his goals was “normalizing” clean energy—making it normal for people to invest in clean energy projects. This means standard forms and checkpoints. It also means that Connecticut’s “green bank”—the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority—now helps “de-risk” investments in clean energy projects. Created in 2011, it can take the first 2% of defaults on clean energy investments, encouraging banks to make loans for such projects at lower interest rates.
This initiative has already impacted New York: in 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo set up the New York Green Bank, a division of the New York State Energy and Research and Development Authority, with an initial $210 million funding.
In Connecut, the green bank, combined with other practices like long-term contracts and reverse-auctions, has meant the following: Esty said that when he took over, Connecticut was paying about 40 cents per kilowatt-hour of solar power. Since then, they’ve pushed that price down to 15 cents per kilowatt-hour; on grid-scale projects in New England, he said the cost is under eight cents per kilowatt-hour.
“That is grid-scale parity,” he concluded. “And by the way, in my mind, that’s the end to the climate-change challenge: It’s not a big treaty, it’s not a Waxman-Markey big cap and trade bill. It is simply a driving of innovation through the series of innovation steps, so that the price of renewable energy comes in under the price of the fossil fuel status quo.” If clean energy is cheaper, people will adopt it, period. “That’s the 21st century model that I propose to you tonight.”
Esty served as commissioner while on a public-service leave from Yale University, where he is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale Law School. He is also director of both the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business and the Environment. These roles are a testament to a career dedicated to the environment.
In his resignation letter, Esty wrote of his experience, “As a boy spending the day at Black Rock State Park, I never could have imagined that I would have the opportunity to lead the agency so central to protecting that park as well as Long Island, and all of the other parks, forests, rivers, and lakes that make Connecticut a special place to live and work.”
After three years of dedication, he was able to offer Connecticut as a hopeful example, a “model for how an energy agenda moves state by state perhaps. Maybe someday nationally.”

Workshop on Building Block Strategies for Global Climate Action
2013-12-12 - 2013-12-13 | NY
As a result of failures over many years to reach an encompassing international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, there is increasing recognition of serious problems in basic design features of the sole global climate change architecture, the UNFCCC. This recognition has provoked calls over the past few years about bottom up strategies for climate. Yet, there has been little serious and sustained work on the necessary characteristics of bottom up regimes that will avoid the structural failings of the UNFCCC.
This workshop is designed to contribute to the work of building alternative, more diverse, less the centralized global climate architectures. It will consider three strategies for structuring bottom up regimes, which we call a “building block approach.” These strategies aim to build transnational regulatory regimes, involving (at least initially) a limited number of public and/or private actors to undertake activities, often for reasons other than achieving greenhouse gas reductions, but that will achieve significant greenhouse gas reductions as a co-benefit. These strategies aim to complement the UNFCCC rather than serve as a substitute.
The workshop agenda can be downloaded here.
Relevant Publications:

Lowering the Cost of Capital for Renewables
2013-11-20 | NY
On Wednesday, November 20th, John Rhodes, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Eli Katz, Partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, and Paul Francis, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law and Trustee of NYU School of Law discussed federal and state policies and private finance mechanisms to drive down the cost of capital for renewable energy projects. The discussion covered a wide-range of policies and incentives including production and investment tax credits, accelerated depreciation, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and NYS’ proposed Green Bank along with YieldCo and securitization structures.

Eli Katz observed that the recent growth in the renewable energy industry has been supported by four primary factors: alarm about climate change, concerns about energy security, renewable portfolio standards in the states, and federal tax policy and argued that federal tax policy has probably been the largest driver of this growth.
The speakers agreed, however, that relying primarily on tax benefits (credits and accelerated depreciation) was inefficient and created uncertainty because of the episodic extension and expiration of renewable energy tax credits. Tax benefits increases the cost of capital for renewable energy projects by 8-9% by restricting investors to the limited number of “tax equity” players that number 15 investors “on a good day” and increases the transaction costs for such projects by requiring elaborate deal structures to monetize the tax benefits available to these projects. Taking advantage of these benefits remains vital to any renewable energy project since about 45% of a project’s structure is often being paid through the federal tax code.
John Rhodes described a “pragmatic” approach at the state level, where New York strives to make sure that its renewable energy subsidy programs, which are not tax credit-based, integrate readily with federal programs. The proposed “Green Bank” in New York State can help close the financing gap for renewable energy projects through “aggregation, credit enhancement, and securitization” and should provide the kind of transparency and consistency about state incentives that will decrease reliably over time that will send a clear market signal and drive business model and technology innovation in the market place.
Alternative federal policies attracting attention like MLPs and REITs may help drive down the cost of capital (perhaps by 20%) and attract more investors, but they don’t widen the pool of eligible tax investors and so are an imperfect or incomplete substitute for the tax benefit incentives for renewable energy.
For more information on some of the mechanisms discussed on this panel, see the Guarini Center’s Fact Sheet.

Regulating Climate Change with the Clean Air Act
2013-10-13 | NY
On Wednesday, October 30, Vickie Patton ’90, general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund and Jared Snyder, Assistant Commissioner for Air, Climate and Energy for New York State, joined Professors Richard Revesz and Richard Stewart to discuss the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
In October, the Supreme Court decided to review only a narrow issue in an expansive DC Circuit Court decision on greenhouse gas regulation. The panel thought that this limited grant of certiorari was excellent news for the future of efforts to combat climate change. In particular, the Court’s decision not to take up the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases leaves intact the administration’s ability to pursue effective climate change policies through the Clean Air Act. “It’s really important the court did not grant review of the endangerment finding,” said Ms. Patton, “That’s the cornerstone.”
Nonetheless, the Court’s decision on the rule regarding Prevention of Significant Deterioration at new and modified sources could have both symbolic and practical effects on EPA’s ability to limit the harmful effects of dirtier, older, grandfathered plants that operate past their useful life.
Finally, the panel considered how EPA can most effectively address the current greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector by crafting flexible mechanisms in its current rulemaking covering existing power plants. Mr. Snyder expressed the hope that the power sector in a state can be viewed as a whole, rather than requiring regulation at the plant level. This will allow, he said, market-based mechanisms like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initative (RGGI) to be used to control CO2 emissions.

Marshall Islands’ Minister Tony de Brum Talks about Climate Leadership from the Pacific Islands
2013-09-26 | NY
On Thursday, September 26th, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Senator Tony de Brum, the Minister in Assistance to the President (equivalent to a Vice President), joined Professor Paolo Galizzi’s International Environmental Law class to talk about climate change in the Pacific and their recent work to spur greater commitments in the international climate change negotiations.
Senator de Brum spoke about the Majuro Declaration on Climate Leadership, the result of an early September summit of Pacific leaders in the RMI capital. “We are not just trying to save our islands,” said Senator de Brum, “we are trying to save the entire world. If the Pacific islands disappear, then it will already be too late for everyone else.” The islands, along with Australia and New Zealand, pledged to make greater emissions reductions and expand the use of renewable energy—the Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will be using 100 percent renewable energy by 2020.
De Brum also talked about the climate diplomacy around the Majuro Declaration, which was presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon by RMI President Christopher Loeak as a complement to Moon’s efforts to build political will for accelerating climate action. The islands also met with and convinced US Secretary of State John Kerry to sign the Declaration and commit to greater, although at this point still unspecified, climate action.
The Marshall Islands, a small chain of islands in the southern Pacific, is keenly aware of the impacts of a changing climate. In the past few months, Majuro has been hit by a ‘king tide’ that crashed over a protective seawall and flooded its airport runway, while in the northern atolls there was a severe drought.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan Speaks at Workshop on Electricity Microgrids
2013-08-08 | NY
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan was at the Law School in August to discuss the President’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, which he chaired. His presentation was part of a workshop organized by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law on using microgrids to increase the resiliency of the larger electrical grid.
Microgrids are small-scale grids—usually the size of city block or university campus—that have their own generating ability (through renewable power or gas-fired generators) and which can operate when the larger grid goes down. NYU’s microgrid and generation facility provided power to NYU buildings on Washington Square Park after Hurricane Sandy when lower Manhattan was blacked out. The workshop was a part of the increased focus on energy law and policy by the Guarini Center. The energy work is being led by two new center fellows: Distinguished Senior Fellow Paul Francis ’80, former Director of New York State Agency Redesign and Efficiency, and Senior Fellow in Energy Jonathan Schrag, former Deputy Commissioner for Energy and Environment of Connecticut.
Secretary Donovan, a former fellow at NYU Law’s Furman Center on Real Estate and Urban Policy, spoke about the work of the Task Force, which released its final report a week later, and focused on the ways that NYC can rebuild to withstand storms like Hurricane Sandy. He described how the federal government had responded to the disaster, including spending billions of dollars through HUD and FEMA in the city and state. He emphasized need for the federal government to align the funding with local rebuilding efforts, and discussed the potential for using microgrids in NYC to help provide power for critical facilities when the larger grid fails.
Other workshop speakers examined how to increase the number of microgrids in urban centers like NYC, and discussed existing systems and the legal and financial barriers to new microgrids. Speakers included: ConEd President Craig Ivey; Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York; John MacWilliams, Senior Finance Advisor to Department of Energy Secretary Moniz; Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer; Sergej Mahnovski, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning.

Fourth Abu Dhabi Workshop on Climate Finance
2013-04-10 | NY

Green for Green: The Business and Law of Renewable Energy Finance
2013-02-15 09:00 - 17:00 | NYU School of Law, Greenberg Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
The Symposium will focus on the key legal, financial and policy issues involved the finance of renewable energy. What can our governments do to facilitate investment and production? What can private companies do in uncertain times? What lessons can we learn from abroad? Leaders from legal practice and academia, private investment, energy companies and all levels of government will cover these and other questions in three panel discussions. The Symposium is presented by the NYU Environmental Law Journal, the NYU Environmental Law Society, and the Frank J. Guarini Center for Land Use and Environmental Law.
Speakers include Nat Keohane (NYU School of Law; former Special Assistant to the President, National Economic Council), David Hill (NRG Energy), Reed Hundt (Coalition for Green Capital), Robert Freedman (Shearman & Sterling), Jonathan Wolfson (Solazyme), John Williams (NYSERDA), Keith Johnson (Wall St. Journal), Michael Likosky (Institute for Public Knowledge).

Aid Effectiveness for Climate-Compatible Development
2012-11-14 12:00 - 14:00 | NYU School of Law, Furman Hall, Lester Pollack Colloquium, 245 Sullivan Street, New York, NY, 10012

Rethinking Climate Change: Towards an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice
2012-02-02 | NY
On February 2, Johnson Toribiong, president of Palau and Tillman Thomas, prime minister of Grenada hosted a diplomatic reception at the law school to build support for a UN General Assembly resolution reqesting International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legal responsibility of countries for climate change under international law. An ICJ advisory opinion may be requested by a simple majority of UN members. This effort by Palau and Grenada is in conjunction with a number of other small island countries, who are concerned about the impact of rising sea levels that are resulting from climate change.
“The truth is that nothing we or other Pacific countries do will stem the rising tides or the flood of global emissions. We need everyone to buy in or it won’t work. An ICJ advisory opinion would give us the guidance we need on what all States must do,“ said President Toribiong. “I am pleased that deliberations on a possible resolution have begun here in New York. But there is a long way to go.”
The UN General Assembly resolution is expected to be introduced in the autumn. Attending the reception along with the President and Prime Minister were their Ambassadors to the UN, Stuart Beck (of Palau) and Dessima Williams (of Grenada). They were joined by nearly 100 other UN Ambassadors, Deputy Permanent Representatives and legal advisors.
Two NYU law students and IILJ scholars, Julian Arato (’11, LL.M.’12) and Ben Heath (’11, LL.M.’12) have been assisting the Mission of Palau by providing legal advice on the issue. Since the Mission of Palau was opened in 2004, NYU law students have provided legal assistance on a number of issues, including international environmental law and law of the sea.

Third Abu Dhabi Workshop on Climate Finance
2012-01-09 - 2012-01-10 | NY
Institutions for climate finance and the new Green Climate Fund were the two main topics of discussion at the workshop on Climate Finance held in Abu Dhabi last week, hosted at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus by the Global Climate Finance Project, together with the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was the Project’s third workshop in the UAE.
The workshop started on Monday, January 9th, bringing local UAE government officials together with an impressive group of experts drawing from academia, the World Bank, various NGOs and the private sector. The workshop heard from three panels discussing the global architecture; the new Green Climate Fund; and tracking climate finance flows. Discussion was so lively that the second day began with a panel originally intended to be on the first day: making transformative investments in climate technologies. The rest of the day was devoted to discussing a paper that will form the opening chapters of a new book on institutions for climate finance that the workshop participants will contribute to. Over the two days, participants engaged in a comprehensive discussion, identifying a number of pressing issues for resolution, areas in which further research is required, and various opportunities for both the UAE and the global community more broadly, to build an effective regime for climate finance.
After the first day of the workshop, Professor Richard Stewart, Professor Daniel Bodansky of Arizona State University and Smita Nakhooda of the Overseas Development Institute held a public discussion on “The Future of International Climate Action,” as a part of the public lectures hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi. The lecture was well attended and was followed by a spirited question and answer session and reception.

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 | NY
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 | NY
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 | NY
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 | NY

On Thin Ice: International Law and Environmental Protection in a Melting Arctic
2010-10-23 | NY
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 | NY
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.
