On Dec. 12 in Paris, representatives of almost all the nations of the world entered into an agreement on mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. As luck would have it, that weekend brought record warm temperatures to the East Coast: 71 degrees in Philadelphia on Dec. 13. I am sure some Pennsylvania environmental lawyers saw this as the biggest event in our field this year—and perhaps this century. Others wonder why everyone talks about these climate-change things because they never seem to affect our day-to-day practice. I suggest that something like the Paris agreement will at the same time affect what we do (a) almost immediately and (b) never.
In order to matter in the practice of most of us, the Paris agreement would have to change, at least arguably, some of our clients’ rights or obligations. It would have to require private parties, municipalities, or the commonwealth to do something or to not do something, or give rights to non-governmental environmental groups to demand that something be done or not done. Otherwise, maybe the Paris Agreement is just something important—or at a minimum interesting—to talk about.
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