Romany Webb

Yesterday, the Sabin Center filed not 1, not 2, but 3 (!) separate comments on EPA's proposal to repeal its GHG emissions standards for fossil fuel power plants. Thanks to the team here that contributed!

(4) When conducting environmental assessments for individual mCDR projects, parties must analyze the projects’ climate mitigation benefits alongside their potential environmental harms. (6/6)

(3) Parties must, in accordance with their due diligence obligations, actively pursue scientific information to enable them to assess the availability of mCDR to mitigate climate change. (5/6)

(1) Parties must apply the precautionary approach in a way that does not unduly delay climate mitigation action. (2) Parties must apply the prevention principle alongside precaution and, to this end, consider the potential for regulation to aid in preventing transboundary climate-related harm. (4/6)

The recent Advisory Opinions from #ICJ & #ITLOS shed new light on the meaning of those principles and their application in the climate context. Our report explains what these seminal opinions mean for the LC/LP parties’ approach to regulating mCDR. We reach four key conclusions. (3/6)

Over the last several years, parties to the LC/LP have adopted decisions, resolutions, and amendments on climate-related activities. In doing so, they’ve referenced legal principles and guidelines, like precaution and prevention. (2/6)

📣 New @sabincenter.bsky.social report on the regulation of #mCDR under the London Convention and Protocol by Korey Silverman-Roati and yours truly. 🧵 (1/6)
climate.law.columbia.edu/content/inte...

Join us on September 19 for a discussion of #mCDR law and policy.

My son this morning: Can we listen to that music from the olden days? You know, those classic songs from the early 200s. Sung by the group of girls.

Turns out he was talking about Destiny's Child.

Feeling ancient right now.

The cover of Homecoming by Kate Morton

Just finished this truly beautiful book. I don’t get much time to read for pleasure these days. This book made me want to find more. A poignant, yet hopeful story, with a killer twist at the end. And it’s by an Aussie! #booksky

Methane Removal Under the Paris Agreement: A New Sabin Center White Paper - Climate Law Blog In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to “strengthen the global response to climate change” by limiting the “increase in global average temperatures to well below 2oC above p...

📣 NEW REPORT: Methane Removal Under the Paris Agreement. Might it be possible to remove methane from the atmosphere? What issues would that raise under the Paris Agreement? My latest report explores the nascent, but fast developing, field of methane removal. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

Opinion | The Icelandic Landscape Is Changing, and It’s Changing Us

“when the glaciers are all gone, what do you call an island that used to be Iceland? Just … Land?”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/o...

📣 UPCOMING EVENT: Join us @columbiauniversity.bsky.social on Sept. 19 for a discussion of the legal & policy landscape for #mCDR in the U.S. & internationally. For those who can't make it to NYC, we'll have remote viewing sites in Seattle (WA), Newark (DE), & BC (Canada). shorturl.at/9fn5d

Chilling on Caturday

BIG NEWS: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights just issued its advisory opinion on #climatechange. Key takeaways are summarized in the Sabin Center's Global Climate Litigation Database (⬇️) & in-depth analysis is coming soon. Key an eye on our Climate Law Blog shorturl.at/yoQvp

Local Laws and Lawsuits Targeting Renewables Becoming More Prevalent in the US - Climate Law Blog While federal policy can have a significant impact on renewable energy development, local policy—and local sentiment—can be just as consequential. Between 2018-2023, at least 30% of utility-scale wind...

📣NEW REPORT: The 5th edition of 'Local Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the U.S.' from @sabincenter.bsky.social is out now. It identifies 459 local govts that had severely restricted renewables as of the end of 2024. That's a 16% increase over 2023 levels! Read more at shorturl.at/JpZVB

Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Will Destroy America's Climate Progress Donald Trump and Republicans are using the "Big Beautiful Bill" to roll back climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Great @rollingstone.com article on the impact of Trump's "big beautiful bill" on the US clean energy transition. As I said: “This will have huge economic impacts. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy. Any consumer who has an energy bill should care about this.” shorturl.at/SPRA4

Perfect day!

📄Martin Lockman, Ashwin Murthy, & Romany Webb’s report on #offshoreoil & gas decommissioning in the #USA was published!
Report➡️ scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climat...

Swimming pool cake

Swimming pool cake! Maybe I’ll become a cake decorator if this climate thing doesn’t work out.

An amazing piece of work by my colleague @matigre.bsky.social. If you want to understand what’s happening with climate litigation in Brazil, this is the book for you!

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

To write is to think. Using ChatGPT to write leads to..."cognitive debt", which might be one of the better euphemism for somewhat less polite words.

Small n, not yet peer-reviewed, etc arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

It’s World Ocean Day! Feels appropriate to share some photos of the ocean surrounding the coral atoll of Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Surely this is worth protecting.

I am honored to have been appointed to the new National Academy of Sciences’ Standing Committee on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal. Looking forward to working with this great group of experts! www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/mar...

Saying there’s a moratorium when there isn’t is really dangerous. It could discourage legitimate (& allowed) research. More concerningly, it could be taken to suggest that the intl. community doesn’t need to do anything else to control problematic activities. Let’s stop with the moratorium talk!

Similarly, under the London Convention & Protocol, a non-binding resolution seeks to restrict ocean fertilization deployment, but allows research. The amendment to the Protocol, dealing with ocean fertilization, includes the same carve-out for research and, in any event, hasn’t entered into force.

The parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have adopted various statements that recommend countries avoid “geonegineering” activities and ocean fertilization specifically. But they’re non-binding and, importantly, provide a carve-out for research which is expressly allowed.

At #OOSC in Nice this week & am constantly hearing people say there is a global moratorium on #mCDR (or some specific approach like ocean fertilization). I heard the same last week at the Liege colloquium. It’s simply wrong. 🧵

New report discussing the growing problem of abandoned oil and gas wells on public lands and what’s required to fix it.

Great to be in Liège, Belgium to speak at the 56th International Liège Colloquium