Guarini Center

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.
