All That Performative Environnmentalism Adds Up

Annie Lowery has a new article in The Atlantic, “All That Performative Environmentalism Adds Up,” in which she considers the ways in which actions by individuals and households can play important roles in promoting effective policy actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What communities do, laws reflect—this is another reason to act on climate change, and urgently. “We’re part of a society, where people interact with companies, companies interact with the government, and people interact with the government.

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Beyond Politics Webinar at the Environmental Law Institute

Michael Vandenbergh and I participated in a webinar hosted by the Environmental Law Institute on our book, Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change. Cassie Phillips (director of the Private Environmental Governance Initiative at ELI) moderated. Stephen Harper (Global Director of Environment and Energy Policy at Intel) and Jackie Roberts (Chief Sustainability Officer at the Carlisle Group) provided private industry perspectives.

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My book reviewed in Nature Climate Change

Time to Re-Think Solutions

For people working to address climate change, there is certainly no viable alternative to reading this book. Beyond Politics presses readers to think beyond their current conception of climate change solutions and, while laying out a reasoned private governance response accompanied by a realistic assessment of its limitations, provides the groundwork for future research and initiatives to reduce emissions.

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Private industry, better messaging can help overcome damage from Paris withdrawal

President Donald Trump's announcement on Thursday that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement phases out U.S. commitments to achieve carbon reduction targets and make financial contributions to slow climate change. It was a move environmentalists found disappointing, at best. But Vanderbilt University law and earth science professors contend initiatives that reduce carbon emissions from corporations and households can fill some of the gap. They point to the example of Walmart, which reduced carbon emissions worldwide by more than 20 million metric tons by focusing on efficiency in its global supply chain.

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Gilligan, Vandenbergh win Morrison Prize for climate change article

Research examining the role that private governance can play in bypassing government gridlock on climate change has earned a pair of Vanderbilt University professors this year's $10,000 Morrison Prize, which recognizes the most impactful sustainability-related legal academic article published in North America during the previous year.

Michael P. Vandenbergh and Jonathan Gilligan were recognized for their paper, “Beyond Gridlock,” which was published in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. They will present the paper at the Third Annual Sustainability Conference of American Legal Educators, held in May at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. The Morrison Prize, which is administered through the O'Connor College of Law's Program on Law and Sustainability, is named for its funder, Richard N. Morrison, co-founder of Arizona State's Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

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