Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Professors Karl S. Coplan, Shelby D. Green, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Smita Narula, Karl R. Rábago (former professor), and Radina Valova, announce the release of their book “Climate Change Law: An Introduction" published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh explains that literacy in the law of climate change will empower lawyers, policymakers, and concerned citizens working to help respond to the climate emergency, and that the book scaffolds reader understanding, quickly introducing core legal terms and concepts to allow readers to understand the key legal debates and obstacles presently shaping society's mitigation efforts.

The authors used years of their research and experience to introduce readers to key terms, concepts, and legal principles in the field of climate change law. Climate change touches nearly every field of law. Since it is so trans-substantive, the authors discussed climate change law in numerous contexts, including international climate change treaties, climate mitigation, energy law, subnational climate adaptation, climate change litigation, international human rights law and climate change, private climate change actors, and individual ethics. After reading “Climate Change Law” the authors hope readers will be introduced to both the basics of climate change law and to current legal questions and debates. Professor Karl Coplan notes that the book is meant for lawyers, law students, policy makers, and climate activists who want an accessible introduction to the legal tools available to address climate change.

The primer is timely as climate change continues to impact public health, safety, and prosperity. Further, climate change law is all the more pressing in the context of a possible 4℃ temperature rise, which is about 2℃ higher than traditional predictions. “What I hope readers will take away from the book is that just as we have the technologies to address climate change, we have the policy tools to address climate change as well, and it is imperative that we put them to work,” said book co-author, Professor Karl Coplan. Professor Radina Valova notes, “[c]limate law is a vast subject area with many branches, each of which has its own legal, regulatory, and policy intricacies. I hope that readers will take away from this book an understanding of the fundamental legal and policy principles of climate change law, as well as future opportunities and challenges.”

The book has received critical acclaim by noted environmental law and climate change experts, including Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Founder and Director of Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, and renowned environmental lawyer. He noted that, “[b]oth lawyers and non-lawyers often ask me what to read for a concise introduction to the U.S. and international laws that are relevant to climate change. Now I have something to enthusiastically recommend. This book is a terrific primer on a complex and rapidly evolving area of law. It shows how courts, legislatures, and executives are addressing (or not) one of humanity's greatest challenges. Even experts will find it a useful refresher.”

Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh sat down for a question and answer series on the book. Watch it below.

Rise Up! Cultivating a Diverse Vision of Resilience

The yearly Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) promotes faculty excellence through dialogue with others throughout the University, encouraging collaboration from all disciplines and levels.

This year’s ITL celebrates a diverse vision of our resilience during a challenging time and provides the opportunity to share how we have risen through these difficulties to highlight positive outcomes, featuring three keynote addresses:

Tuesday, May 17 | Cultivating Wellness

Keynote Speaker: Estela Lugo will highlight her work as a disabilities advocate and provide attendees a motivational perspective on wellness and the forces that drive us to find purpose.

Wednesday, May 18 | Cultivating Career Resilience

Keynote Speaker: Laura Tamman, a veteran political strategist who has advised hundreds of candidates, brings her expertise in ways to support the Pace Community in shining a positive light on our work from a more public perspective.

Thursday, May 19 | Cultivating a Resilient Vision of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

Keynote Speaker: Bryan Dewsbury, PhD, will discuss his team’s research projects that investigate the social context of teaching and learning, as well as his work helping faculty transforming their practice pertaining to inclusive education.

Call for Proposals

Consistent with the theme of cultivating a diverse vision of resilience, this call for proposals invites interactive workshops and presentations that address any of the following topics:

• Wellness and how success is defined. What have you done to improve your own wellness and the wellness of members of the Pace Community?
• Addressing wellness during the pandemic or other stressful events.
• Sharing scholarship publicly in formats beyond traditional academic journal articles.
• Advancing your career: What is successful for you, how do you define success?
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Success: How have you created DEIJ success, how have you defined this success, what were the outcomes, what can we still do?
• How have you changed the definition of success in light of the pandemic?
• How have you changed the definition of resilience in light of the pandemic?

Submit Your Proposal

Please use this link to submit a proposal. Your proposal should be 150-words describing a 45-minute session that demonstrates innovative and unconventional efforts that faculty, staff, and/or students can use to advance the ITL’s overall theme of a diverse vision of resilience. If you have any questions, please email facultycenter@pace.edu.

The deadline to submit a proposal for ITL is Sunday, February 27. Responses to proposals will be sent out by March 31.

Julian Alston ’18 values his tight knit-community at Pace Pleasantville—a smaller university setting full of unique opportunities and experiences in the heart of a campus that has fostered his immense pride for Pace.

My favorite thing about being a Pace student is the diversity of my campus. Pleasantville is smaller but it still feels big because of all the different people we have here from across the country and the world.

As a junior, Alston has already explored a wide range of organizations, internships, and job opportunities on campus to help him reach his goal of leaving a positive legacy on the Pleasantville Campus.

He currently serves as Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President of Administration, he is a mentor in the African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American (AALANA) program, and he is a member of the Lambda Sigma National Honor Society, the Urban Male Initiative, and the Black Student Union.

After getting elected to SGA and considering ways he could positively impact the community, Alston realized there was a need for better transportation to help make getting around the community easier and safer, he says.

“I want to leave my mark in a positive way and have my community taken care of,” he says. “On campus, there are a lot of parking and driving issues, so I thought, is there a possibility to have a partnership with Lyft?”

Instead of driving your own car, waiting for a bus, or calling a cab, Lyft users can request a ride through an app on their phone and be taken to their destination by a local driver in a matter of minutes—providing an easier way for students to go to and from the airport, bars, grocery store, and more.

He pioneered and pitched an idea for a partnership between Lyft and Pace through which students would be able to score special discounts and Lyft would provide more drivers in “hotspots”—popular pick up and drop off locations such as Shoprite in Pleasantville and Grand Central in NYC.

“I want to keep my campus safe, and I know the NYC Campus could really benefit from it too,” Alston says.

As a Lyft Campus Ambassador, he executes marketing campaigns on the Pleasantville Campus and the New York metropolitan area and works closely with the Lyft NYC headquarters. He says he is hoping for a launch of the partnership in the near future on both campuses.

His skill for navigating the business world landed him an internship at the global headquarters of Comcast in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a summer business operations and strategy analyst. In his role, he oversaw national supply chain and logistics flow, worked with five warehouses across the country, participated in brand strategy, reconciled financial statements, and managed the upkeep of weekly financial reports.

“The most useful tip I learned at this internship was my networking skills—I learned that your network is net worth,” Alston says. “I have taken many of the lessons I have learned at my internships and applied them into real life situations, such as how to carry one’s self in a business-like setting.”

When he is not working 10 hours per week in the SGA office or working 16 hours per week at his two on-campus jobs at the College of Health Professions Center of Excellence and the Goldstein Fitness Center, he is building connections that will continue to lift him toward success.

“The best part is connecting with professors and the relationships I have with my advisors and my managers at my three on-campus jobs,” Alston says. “Pace is a great community—it feels like a home away from home. You can’t find that at a lot of universities.”