Greetings from the UCLA Emmett Institute, established more than 10 years ago as the country’s first law school center dedicated to climate change. The vision was for UCLA Law to become a driving force for law and policy responses to climate change in California and around the world—and to train a new generation of students to lead.

Today, the Emmett Institute is one of the largest and most effective climate change centers at any law school, with 10 core faculty members whose research and policy engagement pushes law and policy forward locally, nationally, and globally. In this annual update, we share some of our work from the last year. We start with some faculty updates:

• Mary Nichols, former chair of the California Air Resources Board, is joining the Emmett Institute this month as Distinguished Counsel
• William Boyd, Professor of Law and Michael J. Klein Chair in Law, and Alex Wang, Professor of Law, took on new roles as faculty co-directors at the Institute this year 
• Ted Parson, Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law, continues to serve as faculty director, alongside co-executive directors Sean Hecht and Cara Horowitz
• Ann Carlson, our long-serving faculty co-director, was appointed in January as chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and took a leave of absence to fill that role
• Timothy Malloy was appointed as Frank G. Wells Endowed Chair in Environmental Law and awarded UCLA Law’s top prize for teaching 
• James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law, co-authored a popular book Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives that was reviewed in The New Yorker, New York Times, Financial Times, and other prominent outlets

The following 18 highlights reflect our faculty and students’ commitment to advancing climate change and environmental law and policy throughout this momentous year.

Sean Hecht & Cara Horowitz
Co-Executive Directors, UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

1. Student research helps shape California wildfires bill

The Thomas Fire in 2017 caused more than $2 billion in damages in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Photo credit: Stuart Palley/U.S. Forest Service

Students in the California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic worked alongside legislators and their staff last fall to develop new legislation to help the state adapt to climate change, focusing on the risks posed by wildfires and sea-level rise. A wildfire bill co-sponsored by clinic client Sen. Henry Stern included the student team’s policy ideas for addressing neighborhood-level responses to wildfire risk in Southern California. The bill was passed and signed into law this summer.

2. Alex Wang influences China-U.S. relations on climate change

Alex Wang is leading research on emissions trading in China. Photo credit: Todd Cheney 

Our faculty co-director Alex Wang advanced the public conversation this year on China-U.S. climate and environmental relations through research, high-level events, and media interviews. Wang published a new working paper arguing the U.S.-China relationship on climate change could be defined by "constructive competition"; a paper on banning coal in China, for the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations; and a short paper on governance challenges for countries seeking to meet mid-century carbon neutrality targets, as part of a workshop for the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House.

Last month, Wang presented at a high-level conference on China-U.S. climate cooperation, hosted by Stanford University and Peking University and featuring top U.S. and China climate diplomats John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, as well as leading academics, officials, and experts. Wang spoke on China-U.S. relations at events with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, China Research Group, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, and China Dialogue. And Wang helped explain China’s environmental policies through media interviews and commentary in the New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Quartz, Politico, ChinaFile, Sinica podcast, Carbon Brief, and Legal Planet.

Wang is also leading two research projects on emissions trading in collaboration with Chinese researchers and regulators, funded by the Energy Foundation and the Berggruen Institute.

3. Emmett faculty file influential briefs in federal cases

Emmett Institute faculty filed influential briefs in major court cases that will affect the future of greenhouse gas emissions in the power and transportation sectors.

A ruling by the D.C. Circuit to invalidate the Trump administration's Affordable Clean Energy Rule extensively cited an amicus brief filed by Emmett Institute faculty on behalf of electricity grid experts. Our faculty filed another brief in the case on behalf of Clean Air Act expert Tom Jorling, a primary drafter of the law in 1970. (With that D.C. Circuit decision now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, the issues raised by Emmett Institute faculty and their clients will again be a focus of intensive litigation.) 

Emmett Institute faculty also supported clean car standards with briefs in D.C. Circuit cases, submitted on behalf of 29 U.S. Senators and 118 U.S. Representatives; Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.; and advocates for national parks. The D.C. Circuit paused litigation this spring as the Biden administration reviews Trump-era actions.

4. Ted Parson shapes governance frameworks for emerging climate technologies 

Ted Parson leads the 2019 Geoengineering Summer School in Banff, Canada. 

Led by our faculty director Ted Parson, the Institute’s work on the governance of solar geoengineering and carbon dioxide removal technologies continued to shape public understanding of these emerging issues. This month, Parson published an editorial in the journal Science arguing in support of solar geoengineering research. Parson joined Emmett/Frankel Fellow Jesse Reynolds in organizing, introducing, and synthesizing a special collection of six papers in the journal Futures on scenarios where different groups–like nations vulnerable to climate change or grassroots organizations–might deploy solar geoengineering technologies without an international agreement. Parson and Emmett Fellow Holly Buck also contributed to the journal Global Environmental Politics with an article on how to manage the future phasedown of carbon dioxide removal programs. The research project’s faculty and fellows have produced more than 50 publications since 2017.

5. Student advocacy spurs state action to address lead contamination

​​​​​​​UCLA Law students visited the Exide battery plant site in Vernon, CA, in 2019 with environmental justice advocates from Communities for a Better Environment. Photo credit: Daniel Melling

Working closely with affected community members, students in the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic advocated at a hearing this spring for California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control to clean up parkways in Los Angeles impacted by lead pollution from the former Exide industrial recycling facility. Based in part on the students’ advocacy, DTSC agreed to do more to assess community needs and priorities for the cleanup. The students were working on behalf of Communities for a Better Environment, an environmental justice nonprofit.

The Clinical Legal Education Association awarded the clinic students an Outstanding Clinic Team Award "for excellence in clinic fieldwork and for exceptionally thoughtful, self-reflective participation in an accompanying clinic seminar."

6. Mary Nichols joins the Emmett Institute

Mary Nichols speaks at an Emmett Institute symposium in 2019. Photo credit: Reed Hutchinson

One of the country’s foremost environmental attorneys and policymakers, Mary Nichols is joining UCLA Law and the Emmett Institute faculty this fall as distinguished counsel, where she will support our mission to develop innovative laws and policies and train the next generation of leaders. In December 2020, Nichols completed her long tenure as chair of California Air Resources Board, a post she held since 2007. She also served on the Board from 1975-82. Nichols is not new to UCLA, having served as Director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability from 2004-2007.

Nichols brings expertise from a long and distinguished career in environmental law, including filing the first litigation under the U.S. Clean Air Act while working at the Center for Law in the Public Interest from 1971-1974. From 1993-1997, Nichols served as Assistant Administrator of Air and Radiation for U.S. EPA, where her efforts led to the first federal air quality standard regulating fine-particle pollution and the acid rain sulfur dioxide trading program. In 2018, she received the Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Field of Environmental Law from the California Lawyers Association Environmental Section. Welcome, Mary!

7. James Salzman book re-frames ownership in the 21st century economy

In the book Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives, James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law, and Michael Heller, Lawrence A. Wien Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law, explain the ownership rules of the 21st century for a general audience, including how to apply their framework to protect fisheries, forests, and the climate. The book was reviewed in The New Yorker, New York Times, Financial Times, The Times, and Boston Globe. The authors wrote about ownership issues for the Washington Post and Harvard Business Review.

Salzman also addressed ownership economics in academic papers, including a co-authored commentary in Science arguing that public resource rights auctions should be updated to allow bids for “non-use” conservation. An article in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment assessed gaps between conservation policies and practical implementation of ecosystem services.

8. Clinic advocacy informs historic Los Angeles County action on oil and gas drilling

Students and faculty in the Wells Clinic provided analysis this summer underscoring the legal basis for Los Angeles County to phase out oil and gas operations, submitting two letters to the county on behalf of clients Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust and Natural Resources Defense Council. This work supported an effort by advocates to shift county policy, while training students and postgraduate fellows in local advocacy strategies and legal concepts. In September, county supervisors passed motions to protect communities from urban oil drilling and transition workers to new jobs in the clean energy economy, making Los Angeles County the first major county in the country to move to phase out oil and gas drilling. The motions are consistent with the Clinic’s recommendations.

9. William Boyd raises alarm on increasing tropical deforestation

Despite the significant contraction of global economic activity during the pandemic, loss of primary tropical forests increased by roughly 12 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, our faculty co-director William Boyd wrote in Legal Planet. Boyd serves as project lead of the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force, a network of 38 states and provinces focused on tropical forest protection and rural livelihoods. The task force convened a high-level discussion at COP26 with three tropical forest state governors and senior officials from Brazil, Mexico, and Peru to develop the Manaus Action Plan, a strategic guide to help subnational leaders reduce tropical deforestation, create forest-based economies, and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.

10. Graduates launch leadership careers in environmental law

Faculty mentorship helped UCLA Law graduates launch careers in government, private practice, and legal nonprofits. Graduates in the class of 2021 took on roles at U.S. EPA Region 10; Environmental Defense Fund; Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger; Latham & Watkins; Communities for a Better Environment; and as a judicial law clerk for Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California, among other positions. Other recent graduates have taken on roles at the Yurok Tribe, Earthjustice, the California Attorney General’s Environment Section and Bureau of Environmental Justice, the California Natural Resources Agency, and U.S. EPA Region 9. 

Two members of the class of 2021 are working on environmental justice issues in the Los Angeles region with non-profit Communities for a Better Environment: Idalmis Vaquero ’21 is an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Gabriel Greif '21 is a Public Service Law Fellow, supported by the UC President and the Emmett Institute.

11. Ann Carlson joins the Biden administration

Ann Carlson speaks at a UCLA symposium in 2020. Photo credit: Todd Cheney

Our founding faculty director and Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law Ann Carlson was appointed in January as chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In this role, Carlson is shepherding the Biden administration’s efforts to update federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards. Other UCLA Law alumni serving the Biden administration include Jeffrey Prieto ‘95, serving as general counsel at EPA; Tom Cormons ’06, executive director of Appalachian Voices, serving as a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council; and Nikki Buffa '06, who served on the transition team for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. 

12. Timothy Malloy helps industries and regulators weigh technology choices

Applying expertise in environmental and chemical policy and decision analysis, Timothy Malloy, Frank G. Wells Chair in Environmental Law, led workshops this year to address governance and decision-making around grid-level energy storage, pesticide use, and alternatives to animal testing. As part of a two-year cross-campus UC research project, Malloy led a workshop to explore how to evaluate lifecycle impacts of battery technologies, featuring experts from Southern California Edison, California Energy Storage Alliance, Clean Power Alliance, and LADWP. This summer, Malloy organized a two-day workshop building capacity for robust pesticide regulation in California, following on his interdisciplinary research investigating how state and county officials evaluate safer alternatives to some pesticides. And Malloy co-moderated a workshop on potential changes in the regulatory process that could lead to a more widespread acceptance and use of non-animal testing methodologies for evaluating chemical hazards and risk.

13. Cara Horowitz co-leads UCLA research project on extreme heat in Los Angeles

Cara Horowitz speaks at a 2019 symposium on California's environmental laws. Photo credit: Reed Hutchinson

Our co-executive director Cara Horowitz is co-leading a multidisciplinary UCLA research project on responses to urban heat in Los Angeles, supported by a $1 million dollar grant from the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge. The project combines expertise in engineering, public health, and other disciplines to develop and install new cooling structures aimed at helping to protect highly vulnerable neighborhoods from the risks of extreme heat.

14. Symposium explores environmental justice in the U.S.

The Emmett Institute's spring 2021 symposium, Environmental Justice in the U.S.: Taking Stock under the Biden Administration, brought together more than 600 participants and 17 speakers in panel discussions covering climate justice, clean air, indigenous lands and people, and the intersectional environmental movement. Speakers included experts and advocates from the White House, CalEPA, Earthjustice, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Greenlining Institute, Mothers Out Front, Univ. of Arizona Law, Univ. of Montana Law, and the Yurok Tribe. 

15. Renewable energy course enhances environmental law curriculum

The Emmett Institute expanded its environmental law offerings this year, adding a new course in Renewable Energy Project Finance. The course was developed on the initiative of our faculty co-director William Boyd and taught by Edward Zaelke '83, head of global energy project finance at McDermott Will & Emery. Institute faculty led five other environmental law courses in Spring 2021 and four environmental law courses in Fall 2021.

14 students in the J.D. class of 2021 graduated with a specialization in environmental law, our fourth (and largest) cohort of J.D. students to complete the specialization, and two LL.M. students earned the environmental law specialization, our second cohort of LL.M. students.

16. UCLA Law student takes California water law prize

For the second year running, a UCLA Law student won the California Water Law Symposium's annual prize for writing. Alex Van Roekel '21 won the award with an essay on implementing a 2014 law for the sustainable management of groundwater, to be published in California Water Law Journal. Laura Yraceburu '20 won the 2020 prize. James Salzman guided both students in developing their papers, as part of UCLA Law's Water Law course. UCLA Law students also published articles this year in Corporate Counsel, Hastings Environmental Law Journal, and UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.

17. Emmett faculty support diversity in California bar

Our co-executive director Sean Hecht is serving as chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for 2020-22. The committee develops and implements policies to achieve diverse representation in Bar leadership, professional development, and educational programming. This initiative aims to address significant gaps between the diversity of California’s population and the lack of diversity in the legal profession—particularly at its highest ranks and in Bar leadership. Hecht has served on this committee since its inception in 2018.

This spring, the Emmett Institute co-organized a career panel with attorneys of color from SoCal Edison, Holland & Knight, and Earthjustice for a frank conversation about the opportunities and challenges for non-white people working in environmental law. Emmett/Frankel Fellow Beth Kent '18 served on an expert panel on equitable access to the outdoors at the California Lawyers Association's 2021 Environmental Law Section Diversity Conference.

18. Students support Yurok Tribe effort to access culturally important species

Students in the Tribal Legal Development Clinic and the Wells Clinic this spring contributed to a longstanding Yurok Tribe effort to expand members’ access to traditional food systems along the Klamath River. Known for its innovative, tribal-centric perspective, The Yurok Tribe's legal team has been home to recent UCLA Law graduates: Kori Cordero '14 currently works in the tribe's Office of the Tribal Attorney; Geneva Thompson '16 worked in the office before her appointment this spring as assistant secretary for tribal affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency; and Melodie Meyer '20 received a Justice Catalyst Fellowship to work with the office on climate change issues.

Faculty articles, chapters, & books

Professor William Boyd at our 2019 symposium on California's environmental leadership. Photo credit: Todd Cheney

William Boyd, Michael J. Klein Chair in Law; Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute; Professor, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

• William Boyd, Food Law’s Agrarian Question: Capital, Global Farmland, and Food Security in an Age of Climate Disruption, in Research Handbook on International Food Law (Michael Roberts ed., forthcoming 2022).
• William Boyd, Climate Liability for Wildfire Emissions from Federal Forests, Ecology L.Q. (forthcoming 2022).
• William Boyd, The Poverty of Theory: Public Problems, Instrument Choice, and the Climate Emergency, 46 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 399-487 (2021). 
• William Boyd, Ways of Price Making and the Challenge of Market Governance in U.S. Energy Law, 105 Minn. L. Rev. 739 (2020).
• William Boyd et al., Cases and Materials on Environmental Law, West Academic (10th ed. 2020).

Timothy Malloy, Professor of Law; Frank G. Wells Endowed Chair in Environmental Law  

• Timothy Malloy et al., Evaluating the Application of Decision Analysis Methods in Simulated Alternatives Assessment Case Studies: Potential Benefits and Challenges of Using MCDA, 17 Integrated Envtl. Assessment and Mgmt. 27-41 (Jul. 2020).
• Timothy Malloy & Kazue Chinen, QSAR Use in REACH Analyses of Alternatives to Predict Human Health and Environmental Toxicity of Alternative Chemical Substances, 16 Integrated Envtl. Assessment and Mgmt. 745 (Mar. 2020).

Edward A. Parson, Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law; Faculty Director, Emmett Institute

• Edward A. Parson & Charles R. Corbett, Radical Climate Adaptation in Antarctica, Ecology L.Q. (forthcoming 2022).
• Edward A. Parson, Geoengineering: Symmetric Precaution, 374 Science 795 (Nov. 2021).
• Edward A. Parson & Jesse L. Reynolds, Solar Geoengineering: Scenarios of Future Governance Challenges, 133 Futures 1-12 (Oct. 2021). 
• Edward A. Parson & Jesse L. Reynolds, Solar Geoengineering Governance: Insights from a Scenario Exercise, 132 Futures 1-11 (Sept. 2021). 
• Edward A. Parson & Holly J. Buck, Large-Scale Carbon Dioxide Removal: The Problem of Phasedown, 20 Global Envtl. Politics 70 (Aug. 2020).

James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law

• James Salzman et al., Allow “Nonuse Rights” to Conserve Natural Resources, 373 Science 958-961 (Aug. 2021).
• James Salzman et al., Connecting Ecosystem Services Science and Policy in the Field, Frontiers in Ecology and the Env’t 519-525 (2021). 
• James Salzman & Gabriel Eckstein, Introduction to the Symposium on Interstate Disputes Over Water Rights, 115 AJIL Unbound 170-172, Cambridge University Press (May 2021).
• James Salzman & Michael Heller, Elon Musk Doesn’t Care About Patents. Should You?, Harv. Bus. Rev. (Mar. 2021).
• James Salzman & Michael Heller, Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control our Lives, Doubleday Books (Mar. 2021).
• James Salzman, Brigham Daniels, & Andrew Follett, Reconsidering NEPA, 96 Ind. L.J. 865-910 (2021).
• James Salzman, The Safe Drinking Water Act, in Fifty Years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Progress, Retrenchment, and Opportunities (James Barnes et al. eds., Feb. 2021).

• James Salzman & J.B. Ruhl, A Global Assessment of the Law and Policy, 39(3) U. Queensland L.J. 503-523 (2020).

Julia E. Stein, Supervising Attorney, Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic; Clinical Director, California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic; Project Director, Emmett Institute

• Julia E. Stein, Leeza Arbatman, Michael Cohen, & Shawna Strecker, Strategies for Optimizing Regional Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation in Southern California, California Policy Options, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs (forthcoming 2022).

Alex Wang, Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute

• Alex Wang, Three Governance Challenges in the Era of Carbon Neutrality, SSRN (Jul. 2021).   
• Alex Wang, Is U.S.-China Climate Action Possible in an Era of Mistrust?, SSRN (Apr. 2021).  
• Alex Wang, Banning Coal – A Modest Proposal for U.S.-China Climate Change Cooperation, Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations (Oct. 2020).
• Alex Wang, Siyi Shen, & David Pettit, Coordinated Governance of Air & Climate Pollutants: Lessons from the California Experience, UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (Aug. 2020).

Faculty legal briefs & comment letters

Julia Stein, William Boyd, Charles R. Corbett, Benjamin A. Harris, Sean B. Hecht, Cara Horowitz, Beth Kent, Edward A. Parson, Alex Wang, Jonathan Zasloff. Comment Letter on EPA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy Preemption Rule (June 10, 2021)

Cara Horowitz, Julia Stein, Benjamin Harris, Beth Kent, & Siyi Shen. Amicus Brief for Members of Congress in Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al. v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), et al. (Jan. 21, 2021). 

Sean B. Hecht and Siyi Shen. Comment Letter on behalf of 40 Legal Scholars on Proposed Action: Review of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (Oct. 6, 2020).

Charles R. Corbett and Sean B. Hecht. Amicus Brief for Comité Civico del Valle in Center for Biological Diversity et al. v. U.S. EPA  (Aug. 24, 2020) (in defense of clean air on behalf of environmental justice community in Imperial County, California).
 
Adrien Abecassis, Charles R. Corbett, Benjamin Harris, Edward A. Parson, & Jesse L. Reynolds. Comment Letter on Proposed Governance Framework for Harvard University’s Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (“SCoPEx”) by the SCoPEx Advisory Committee (July 31, 2020).

Cara Horowitz, Julia Stein, Benjamin Harris, and Ann Carlson. Amicus Brief for 29 U.S. Senators and 118 U.S. Representatives in Union of Concerned Scientists, et al. v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (Jul. 6, 2020) (opposing Trump administration attempt to revoke California’s clean car standards).
 
Ted Lamm and Sean B Hecht. Amicus Brief for National Parks Conservation Association and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks in Union of Concerned Scientists, et al. v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (July 1, 2020).

About the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law
The Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is among the leading environmental law programs in the country, with faculty members renowned for their public service, teaching excellence, and scholarship in state, federal, and international law. Located in Los Angeles, a diverse city facing unique environmental justice and climate change challenges, the Emmett Institute provides J.D. and LL.M. students unmatched opportunities for mentoring, career placement, and experiential learning. Through groundbreaking research and public interest initiatives, the Emmett Institute helps shape climate change and environmental law and policy in California, the United States, and jurisdictions around the world.