Urban Climate Law: An Earth Institute Sustainability Primer

Cities have taken a leading role in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As federal and state climate policy waxes and wanes, many of the largest U.S. cities have pledged themselves to ambitious sustainability goals, as have smaller communities across the country. City-level policy makers, facing a range of political constraints, a thicket of federal and state laws, and varying degrees of municipal authority, need to figure out how to meet their climate commitments.

Urban Climate Law is a practical, user-friendly primer on the legal challenges and opportunities for effective and equitable decarbonization. Michael Burger and Amy E. Turner--leading experts in local climate law and policy--examine the key issues surrounding climate mitigation policies across the buildings, transportation, waste, and energy sectors, with an emphasis on environmental justice. They explore the legal frameworks and factors that can constrain or enable various approaches at the municipal level. Burger and Turner clearly and accessibly present complex legal topics like preemption, federal statutes such as the Clean Air Act, and constitutional law for readers without legal backgrounds, including students, advocates, officials, and other practitioners. Aimed at a nonspecialist audience, this book provides concise and comprehensible answers to the core questions cities confront when seeking to develop legally sound local climate policy.

Michael Burger is the executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and senior research scholar at Columbia Law School. His previous books include Global Climate Change and U.S. Law (third edition, 2023). He is also of counsel at Sher Edling LLP.

Amy E. Turner is a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, where she leads the Cities Climate Law Initiative, and an associate research scholar at Columbia Law School. She previously cofounded a climate nonprofit and practiced environmental law in New York City.