Climate Change Law and Policy Project
Produced by Prof. Edward Richards, Visit the project’s website
Siberian heatwave of 2020 almost impossible without climate change
Prolonged Siberian heat of 2020
A large, rapid multi-method attribution study, supported by observational and large ensemble model analyses, indicates with high confidence that extremely warm periods such as the 6 months of January – June 2020 over the Siberian region would have been at least 2 °C cooler in a world without human influence. Similar events have a best estimate return time in the current climate of around 130 years and are now more than 600 times as likely to occur as they would have been at the beginning of the 20th century; with the best estimate orders of magnitude larger. By 2050 we expect such a regional warm period in the first 6 months of the year to be at least another 0.5 °C warmer, and possibly up to 5 °C warmer, with similar 6-month regional temperatures becoming correspondingly more frequent. Statements regarding the very high June daily maximum temperatures (38 °C) such as were reported at Verkhoyansk can be made only with much lower confidence. Nevertheless, results also indicate a large increase in the likelihood of such temperatures and, with more confidence, an increase in extreme daily maxima of more than 1 °C when comparing the climate of 1900 to the present day.
Federal Circuit Rejects Court of Claims finding that MRGO Caused a Taking by Flooding
Updated
Read More →NOAA – 2019 State of U.S. High Tide Flooding with a 2020 Outlook
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sea level rise flooding of U.S. coastlines is happening now, and it is becoming more frequent each year. This flooding typically occurs when ocean waters reach 0.5 meter (m) to 0.65 m above the daily average high tide and starts spilling onto streets or bubbling up from storm drains. Evidence of a rapid increase in sea level rise related flooding started to emerge about two decades ago, and it is now very clear. This type of coastal flooding will continue to grow in extent, frequency, and depth as sea levels continue to rise over the coming years and decades.
FloodFactor – Find your home’s Flood Factor – Tool for Determining Present and Future Flood Risk
Flood Factor
Defining American’s past, present, and future flood risk.
Flood Factor is a free online tool created by the nonprofit First Street Foundation that makes it easy for Americans to finally find their property’s current and future risk of flooding, learn if it has flooded in the past, and understand how flood risks are changing because of the environment.
Flood Factor was created to make the most cutting edge flood science:
Accessible to all
Available at the property level
Easy to understand
SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America
Executive Summary
American leadership and ingenuity are central to solving the climate crisis. With the devastating health and economic consequences of climate change growing at home and abroad, the United States must act urgently, guided by science, and in concert with the international community to provide a livable climate for today’s youth and future generations. We must harness the technological innovation of the moonshot, the creativity of our entrepreneurs, the strength of our workers, and the moral force of a nation endeavoring to establish justice for all. Working together, we will avert the worst impacts of the climate emergency and build a stronger, healthier, and fairer America for everyone. The Climate Crisis Action Plan outlined in this report provides a roadmap for Congress to build a prosperous, clean energy economy that values workers, advances environmental justice, and is prepared to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.
Law: Carbon Capture and Storage, Technological Advancements and Operational Hurdles – Feb 2020
“Law: Carbon Capture and Storage, Technological Advancements and Operational Hurdles” – recording
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Grant
ECOLE: Emerging Technologies in Occupational Health and the Environment Workshop Program
February 14, 2020
9AM-12:00 Noon
8:45 – Welcome
9:00 -10:15 – Panel: Legal Regimes and Policy Hurdles for Carbon Capture and Storage and Negative Emissions Technologies
Nick Bryner (Professor, LSU Law Center)
Tracy Hester (Lecturer, Houston Law Center)
Will Burns (Professor, Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, American University)
10:15-10:30 – Break
10:30-11:45 – Panel: Legal Regimes and Policy Hurdles for Green and Blue Carbon Capture and Storage
Blake Hudson (Professor, Houston Law Center)
Ed Richards (Professor, LSU Law Center) slides
Nick Bryner (Professor, LSU Law Center)
11:45-Noon – Closing Remarks
Objective/Purpose
This program aims to discuss emerging issues at the intersection of technology, law and carbon capture and storage, and to educate the local legal and scientific community on the potential of these technologies, and their potential pitfalls.
The Geology of the Katrina Disaster in New Orleans – a field trip guide
This guide was prepared by Stephen A. Nelson Dept. Earth & Environmental Sciences at Tulane University. It is discussed on his website.
FEMA – Disaster Operations Legal Reference Manuals
Version 3.1
This mid-edition online update of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.1) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 3.0, issued in March 2017. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.
Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.1)
Version 3.0
The Third Edition of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.0) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 2.0, issued in June 2013. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.
FEMA – Disaster Operations Legal Reference Manual – Version 3.0 (2017)
Version 2.0
The Second Edition of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 2.0) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 1.0 issued in November 2011. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.
California – Climate Change and Sea Level Assessment
This updated document, the “State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance” (Guidance), provides a bold, science-based methodology for state and local governments to analyze and assess the risks associated with sea-level rise, and to incorporate sea-level rise into their planning, permitting, and investment decisions. This Guidance provides:
1. A synthesis of the best available science on sea-level rise projections and rates for California;
2. A step-by-step approach for state agencies and local governments to evaluate those projections and related hazard information in decision making; and
3. Preferred coastal adaptation approaches
California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment – Statewide Summary (2018)
The Statewide Summary Report presents an overview of the main findings from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, to translate the state of climate science into useful information for action. This report presents findings in the context of existing climate science, including strategies to adapt to climate impacts and key research gaps needed to spur additional progress on safeguarding California from climate change.
WWW site – http://www.climateassessment.ca.gov/
California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment provides information to build resilience to climate impacts, including temperature, wildfire, water, sea level rise, and governance. Here you can view a snapshot of the key findings of the Fourth Assessment. For additional information, please download the Key Findings brochure.
ASSESSING AND COMMUNICATING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST (2018)
Over the course of this and the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal erosion will threaten the sustainability of coastal communities, development, and ecosystems as we currently know them. To clearly identify coastal vulnerabilities and develop appropriate adaptation strategies for projected increased levels of coastal flooding and erosion, coastal managers need user-friendly planning tools based on the best available climate and coastal science. In anticipation of these climate change impacts, many communities are in the early stages of climate change adaptation planning but lack the scientific information and tools to adequately address the potential impacts. In collaboration with leading scientists worldwide, the USGS designed the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) to assess the coastal impacts of climate change for the California coast, including the combination of sea level rise, storms, and coastal change. In this project, we directly address the needs of coastal resource managers in Southern California by integrating a vast range of global climate change projections and translate that information using sophisticated physical process models into planning-scale physical, ecological, and economic exposure, shoreline change, and impact assessments, all delivered in two simple, user-friendly, online tools. Our results show that by the end of the 21st century, over 250,000 residents and nearly $40 billion in building value across Southern California could be exposed to coastal flooding from storms, sea level rise, and coastal change. Results for the other major population center in California (the greater San Francisco Bay Area) are also available but not explicitly discussed in this report. Together, CoSMoS has now assessed the exposure of 95% of the 26 million coastal residents of the State (17 million in Southern California).
The Paris Climate Change Agreement
The Paris Agreement – Full Text
The Paris climate agreement is at risk of falling apart in the 2020s
Season 3, Episode 2: Will We Always Have Paris? Can the World’s Climate Agreement Survive the 2020s?
Paris Mismatches: The Impact of the COP21 Climate Change Negotiations on the Oil and Gas Industries
President Trump’s Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement Raises Legal Questions: Part 1 & 2. CRS (2017)
Data Driven Yale, NewClimate Institute, PBL 2018: Global climate action of regions, states and businesses. Research report published by Data Driven Yale, NewClimate Institute (2018)
Subnational climate change mitigation efforts will not offset the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
FISCAL MONITOR: How to Mitigate Climate Change, IMF (2019)
FISCAL MONITOR: How to Mitigate Climate Change, IMF (2019)
The projections included in this issue of the Fiscal Monitor are drawn from the same database used for the October 2019 World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report (and are referred to as “IMF staff projections”). Fiscal projections refer to the general government, unless otherwise indicated. Short-term projections are based on officially announced budgets, adjusted for differences between the national authorities and the IMF staff regarding macroeconomic assumptions. The medium-term fiscal projections incorporate policy measures that are judged by the IMF staff as likely to be implemented. For countries supported by an IMF arrangement, the medium-term projections are those under the arrangement. In cases in which the IMF staff has insufficient information to assess the authorities’ budget intentions and prospects for policy implementation, an unchanged cyclically adjusted primary balance is assumed, unless indicated otherwise. Details on the composition of the groups, as well as country-specific assumptions, can be found in the Methodological and Statistical Appendix
Federal Disaster Insurance – Senate Report – 1956
Federal Disaster Insurance, Report of the Committee on Banking and Currency, United States Senate (January, 9 1956) – large file
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES SENATE,
COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY,
November 30, 1955.
Hon. J. W. FULBRIGHT,
Chairman, Committee on Banking and Currency,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C.
DEAR SENATOR FULBRIGHT:
At your direction, the staff has prepared background materials relating to consideration of a Federal disaster insurance program. Except for certain deletions and rearrangements, this compilation was made available to all members of the committee, in substantially its present form, at the beginning of the hearings on October 31, 1955. Since the study was intended to lay the groundwork for the initial phases of the committee’s inquiry, it does not generally include information developed during the hearings. Such data will be taken into account in future committee reports. Limitation of time has restricted the amount of detailed data included and has precluded a more complete analysis of the materials. While the scope of the study includes all natural and manmade disasters, emphasis has been placed on those for which insurance is not readily available (such as floods) and for which information was obtainable in a short period of time from public and private sources. From this committee’s own files came much of the material dealing with the problems of war damage–the result of considerable renewed attention given to this phase of the problem since 1950. The committee staff received fine cooperation from the Federal agencies, private organizations, and individuals that were requested to supply data. The materials included in this study were compiled and prepared by Mr. William F. McKenna, counsel of the committee. Mr. Donald L. Rogers, also counsel of the committee, prepared the chapter on natural disaster relief. The staff wishes gratefully to acknowledge the contributions of the various Government agencies, private organizations and individuals listed at the end of the study.
ROBERT A. WALLACE, Staff Director.
