Episodes
Monday Feb 08, 2021
The Keystone Pipeline System: An Exercise in Futility
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Hear law professors Sean Kammer (PhD) and Myanna Dellinger (PhD candidate) discuss why the corporate and conservative attempts at keeping the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline will inevitably fail and why, then, it would be more expedient from an environmental and business point of view to face reality sooner rather than later. This holds true despite the fact that any president does have the power to issue an Executive Order regarding the project.
Under the Paris Agreement, we must, among other things, reach net zero emissions by 2050 to help the world – and ourselves – limit catastrophic climate change. UN and other experts have made it clear that we must take sufficient action within the next decade. For that reason, it also makes not sense to create and continue vast oil distribution networks.
Wednesday Jan 25, 2017
Transitioning Energy
Wednesday Jan 25, 2017
Wednesday Jan 25, 2017
In this podcast, Myanna Dellinger interviews Craig Morris on his experience and views regarding how the German energy sector transitioned from fossil fuels to modern energy sources through grass-roots movements. The lessons learned have been adopted by other countries and maybe there is hope of using this model for an energy transition in more stubborn countries such as the United States.
Craig Morris (@PPchef) is currently a Senior Fellow at the IASS. Coauthored with Arne Jungjohann, his book Energy Democracy is the first history of Germany’s energy transition, the Energiewende. He has served as technical editor of IRENA’s REmap and of Greenpeace’s Energy (R)evolution. In 2008, he cofounded Berlin’s PV Magazine; in 2010, Renewables International. In 2012, he became lead author of EnergyTransition.de. In 2014, he won the International Association of Energy Economists’ prize for energy journalism.
Monday Jan 16, 2017
Climate Geoengineering and Its Governance
Monday Jan 16, 2017
Monday Jan 16, 2017
What can we do today to work toward adequate governance of climate engineering down the road? In this podcast, Myanna Dellinger discusses with Matthias Honegger why governance urgently requires a global conversation open to all, which can help unearth concerns, risks and opportunities associated with various new ways to dealing with climate change in the context of expected future impacts from climate change itself.
After studying environmental system sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology, Matthias Honegger has been working since the beginning of 2012 on international climate policy in developing countries and on climate negotiations as a consultant for various multilateral organizations and governmental bodies with the consulting firm Perspectives Climate Change (CV). During this time, he has actively followed and contributed to research on climate engineering and its governance and reflected about the climate engineering governance implications of the Paris Agreement (Harvard Viewpoints article). At the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that took place November 2016 in Marrakech, Matthias has participated in what may well be the first serious conversations on this important issue area on the margins of international climate negotiations – including with negotiators representing countries from the global south and north. He also spoke in Marrakech on the need for a global conversation in a panel discussion (video). In his position at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Matthias Honegger is undertaking social science research on questions regarding governance (mobilizing and regulating negative emissions technologies), and risks in context of direct interventions in the climate system and the growing threat from climate change.
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Loss and Damage under the Paris Agreement
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in the United States EPA Regime
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
This interview was recorded on July 11th, 2016. Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews Rick Reibstein about the problems and issues surrounding the compliance and enforcement of environmental issues.
Monday Jun 27, 2016
Volkswagen Emission "Dieselgate" Scandal, Part II
Monday Jun 27, 2016
Monday Jun 27, 2016
Sunday Jun 19, 2016
Volkswagen Emission "Dieselgate" Scandal, Part I
Sunday Jun 19, 2016
Sunday Jun 19, 2016
In the first of a two part series, Professor Dellinger interviews Björn Fasterling regarding the scandal that has rocked Volkswagen in what is now being called "Dieselgate".
Björn Fasterling is professor of law and the head of the law faculty at EDHEC Business School (Lille & Nice, France). His research and publications focus on ethics and compliance management in companies, and more recently on business and human rights. Prior to joining EDHEC, professor Fasterling practised as a German lawyer in the Berlin office of the Washington DC based law firm WilmerHale
Update: After completing the two interviews on the VW “dieselgate” scandal, VW announced plans to launch 30 all-electric models to reposition itself as a leader in "green" transport. Matthias Mueller, chief executive of VW, said huge investments would be needed as the firm moves beyond the "dieselgate" scandal. Mr. Mueller hopes that by 2025, all-electric cars would account for about 20-25% of the German carmaker's annual sales.
Volkswagen has also agreed to take a series of steps costing about $10.2 billion to settle claims from its unprecedented diesel emissions cheating scandal in the U.S.
Tuesday Mar 22, 2016
Nuclear Power in France and Beyond, Part III
Tuesday Mar 22, 2016
Tuesday Mar 22, 2016
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, it has become clear that fossil fuels must be left in the ground.
Nuclear power has resurfaced on the scene as a potentially viable energy source after the phase-out of fossil fuels. In this three part-series, you will be able to hear from experts in the field discuss both the pros and cons of nuclear energy and related future energy issues.
This is part three of the series. In this part, Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews Gabrielle Hecht. Gabrielle Hecht is professor of history at the University of Michigan. She is the author of two award-winning books: The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II, first published by MIT Press in 1998 and reissued in 2009, and Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade, which appeared in 2012.
Photo by Fernand Pio
Tuesday Mar 15, 2016
Nuclear Power in France and Beyond, Part II
Tuesday Mar 15, 2016
Tuesday Mar 15, 2016
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, it has become clear that fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Nuclear power has resurfaced on the scene as a potentially viable energy source after the phase-out of fossil fuels. In this three part-series, you will be able to hear from experts in the field discuss both the pros and cons of nuclear energy and related future energy issues.
This is part two of the series. In this part, Professor Dellinger interview Dr Jonathan Cobb. Dr. Cobb is a Senior Communication Manager at the World Nuclear Association, based in London, United Kingdom. Dr Cobb began his career working in R&D for British Nuclear Fuels before focusing on climate change, sustainable development and energy policy. He joined the World Nuclear Association in 2005 as their advisor on climate change. He has represented the World Nuclear Association at the UNFCCC climate change meetings since 1999 and most recently attended COP 21 in Paris in 2015.
Thanks for listening!
Myanna Dellinger
Associate Professor of Law
University of South Dakota School of Law
Monday Feb 22, 2016
Nuclear Power in France and Beyond
Monday Feb 22, 2016
Monday Feb 22, 2016
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, it has become clear that fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Nuclear power has resurfaced on the scene as a potentially viable energy source after the phase-out of fossil fuels. In this three part-series, you will be able to hear from experts in the field discuss both the pros and cons of nuclear energy and related future energy issues.
Wednesday Nov 11, 2015
Environmental Law in China: A Paper Tiger or Actual Change?
Wednesday Nov 11, 2015
Wednesday Nov 11, 2015
China has declared “war on pollution” with several new environmental laws and the willingness to take action against climate change. Awareness of the severe and lingering environmental problems in China is increasing, both domestically and externally. Does this truly mean that China will finally take meaningful, active steps to combat air, water and land pollution, or are the initiatives merely aspirational with other issues continuing to take precedence despite much promising rhetoric? In this podcast, Myanna Dellinger interviews three law professors with unique insight into Chinese environmental law and its potential enforcement.
Joseph W. Dellapenna is a Professor of Law at Villanova Law School. His research focuses on water management (national and international) and international and comparative law. He has previously taught at several universities in the United States and abroad. He is the only person ever to be a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Law in both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China. Professor Dellapenna has also served as a consultant to numerous private entities and foreign governments, including the World Bank, the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the People’s Republic of China, as well as the Republic of China. Professor Dellapenna lived for two years in China and still returns several times a year for professional purposes. He lived in China for two years and speaks Mandarin.
Joel A. Mintz is a Professor of Law at Nova Southeastern Law Center where he has taught courses related to environmental law since 1983. Before entering academia, Professor Mintz was an enforcement attorney and chief attorney with the EPA in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Widely viewed as one of the nation’s leading legal academic experts on environmental enforcement, Joel Mintz has testified before the United States Congress on the subject and published three books and numerous book contributions and law review articles regarding it. Professor Mintz is also the author or co-author of six other books regarding environmental law, sustainability, and municipal debt financing. He is a recipient of several awards for his work as an attorney, teacher and scholar. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Alex Wang is an Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. His research focuses on Chinese law, politics, and environmental regulation. Professor Wang previously served as senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Beijing and as the founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project. In this capacity, he worked with China’s government agencies, legal community, and environmental groups to improve the environmental rule of law and strengthen the role of the public in environmental protection. He helped to establish NRDC’s Beijing office in 2006. He was a Fulbright Fellow to China from 2004-05. Professor Wang was a fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations (2008-10) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Advisory Board to the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Monday Sep 21, 2015
Asset Owners Disclosure Project
Monday Sep 21, 2015
Monday Sep 21, 2015
- Julian Poulter is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the AODP.
- Sarah Barker is a Special Counsel in the Corporate Group in Minter Ellison's Melbourne office, and has published extensively on trustee fiduciary duty and climate risk. Ms. Barker provides advice to AODP on climate risk and fiduciary duty in the Australian context.
- Jay Youngdahl is a partner in the Houston-based law firm, Youngdahl & Citti, P.C. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the College of Business at San Francisco State University and has been a Senior Fellow with the Hauser Institute’s Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard University. Mr. Youngdahl provides advice to AODP on fiduciary law and climate change risk in the United States.
Sunday Jun 14, 2015
The Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations - part 2
Sunday Jun 14, 2015
Sunday Jun 14, 2015
On March 1, 2015, a group of experts in international law, human rights law, environmental law, and other law adopted the Oslo Principles on Global Obligations to Reduce Climate Change. These experts came from national and international courts, universities and organizations located around the world. In part two of two podcasts on the Oslo Principles, Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews Philip Sutherland, a Professor at the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Law in South Africa. Professor Sutherland was one of 13 experts contributing to the recent formulation of the “Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations” and will be adding his insight to the previous comments by Professor Gerrard on the Principles. Prof Sutherland teaches and researches in the areas of corporate, competition and financial services law. He has published more than 35 articles and chapters in books in these fields. His main focus is currently the broader societal impacts of business activities.
Monday Apr 27, 2015
Kenya, Environment and Public Participation
Monday Apr 27, 2015
Monday Apr 27, 2015
In this podcast, Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews attorney Ruth Nzioka who is a legal intern with the Institute for Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG) in Nairobi, Kenya. ILEG is an independent, non-profit public interest law and policy organization focused on promoting sustainable development. We work with local communities, governments, the private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs) to ensure fair, balanced and equitable development policy choices to improve peoples’ lives and protect the environment.
Professor Dellinger spoke with Ms. Nzioka in Eugene, Oregon in early March about what she sees as pressing environmental issues in Kenya and the African continent in general. Ms. Nzioka has a particular interest in public participation in environmental law and talks about why she sees public participation as important to the future of environmental governance in Kenya.
Friday Feb 20, 2015
Atmospheric Trust Litigation
Friday Feb 20, 2015
Friday Feb 20, 2015
Does anyone have legal rights to “the atmosphere” and thus a stable climate? Professor of Law Mary Wood argues that governments in the United States and abroad hold the atmosphere in trust for the general public and are thus accountable for reducing carbon pollution to protect the climate for current and future generations. Tracing the origin of the well-established public trust doctrine to Roman law, Professor Wood discusses with Associate Professor of Law Myanna Dellinger how this enduring principle of law has resulted in judges requiring governments to protect, for exampe, rivers, lakes and oceanfronts. Professor Wood explains how some NGOs have recently brought suit under the public trust doctrine for government-scale failures to mitigate climate change through legislative or regulatory action and explains why this is sound policy in the nick of time.