Prof. Michael Gerrard

“ [Deep decarbonization] is a steep mountain to climb. It’s going to be very expensive, but the costs of not climbing that mountain are much higher. ”

Michael Gerrard is the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School and the founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He writes and teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation. He was the chair of the faculty of Columbia University’s Earth Institute from 2015 to 2018. Prior to joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 2009, he practiced law in New York, most recently as the partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter, where he remains senior counsel. He has written or edited 13 books, including Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the first and leading work in its field (co-edited with Jody Freeman). His most recent book is Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (co-edited with John Dernbach). Gerrard is the former chair of the American Bar Association’s 10,000-member Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. He has also chaired the New York City Bar Association’s Executive Committee and the New York State Bar Association’s environmental law section. He has served on the executive committees of the boards of the Environmental Law Institute and the American College of Environmental Lawyers.

Talks by Prof. Michael Gerrard

Deep Decarbonization

The climate crisis threatens to create global food, health, housing, and social insecurity and displace millions, if not billions, of people. A major cause of rapid climate change is the dramatic increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere driven by human activity over the last century. In fact, the past five years have been the five warmest years on record, and all signs point to a continuing trend unless massive steps are taken to slow down and reverse the tide. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to fighting climate change, deep decarbonization, or achieving net-zero emissions, has emerged as the major goal for the next decades. What does deep decarbonization entail? Michael Gerrard, professor at Columbia Law School and the faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, explains the legal challenges and reforms needed in energy and transportation, the two largest GHG emitting sectors, to achieve deep decarbonization and the policies and actions the Biden administration will likely institute in the near-term to reach climate change objectives.

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