a3| A Conference on Climate Justice

Live Webcast is Up!

If you can’t join us in person, you can watch here through the live feed!:

http://mediaweb.merage.uci.edu/Mediasite/Viewer/?peid=47211801a0be43de92c2ddfc01453d651d

Also, please feel free to ask questions and participate via the blog! We will be looking for questions for the panels from blog comments, twitter (ELSatUCILAW), and in person!

10.30-10.40    Welcome

Welcome to the A3: Conference on Social Justice and welcome to the A3 discussion forum. Here you will find discussion forums for all of todays panels as well as links and information about the conference and environmental social justice.

To make a comment, click on the link for the current panel and post a response to the panel. It’s that easy! Please feel free to post links to interesting articles or organizations, pose questions to the panel (we will be looking out for them!), and start discussions about subtopics that the panels get you thinking about.

We hope that this online forum will allow others to participate and learn about what happened here today. The videos for all panels will be available the week after the conference so please feel free to send people to this site.

Thank you for coming!

- Jean, Theresa, Luke, and Josh
The A3 Conference Team

Keynote Speaker, Donald Brown

10.40-11.05    Keynote Speech. The Practical Need to Turn Up the Volume on the Ethical Dimensions
of Climate Change with Donald Brown
Co-sponsored by the UCI Undergraduate Environmental Law Society

Donald Brown is Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics, Science, and Law, and Director, Collaborative Program on Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change, Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State University

Keynote Synopsis: Professor Brown will explore the practical importance of turning up the volume on the ethical and moral dimensions of climate change. The domestic debate about climate change policy has, for the most part, focused on shortterm economic gains and the science of climate change, ignoring the phenomenon’s ethical dimensions.  This speech frames how climate change policy can and should be viewed through the lens of responding to the duties and obligations that we have to those who are most vulnerable to climate change impacts

Green for All with Uduak Ntuk

11.05-11.25    Exhibition of Regional Organizations
Featured Presentation. Green for All with Uduak Ntuk

Innovation for Vulnerable Communities

11.40-1.00      Panel 1. Innovation for Vulnerable Communities
Co-sponsored by the underRepresented Student Alliance

• Facilitated by Richard Matthew, Associate Professor of International and Environmental Politics, Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science, University of California, Irvine, and founding Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs

• Panelists include:

• Maxine Burkett, Associate Professor of Law, and Director, Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai‘i
• Elizabeth Burleson , Fulbright Senior Specialist, and Visiting Professor, University of Florida School of Law
• Ethan Elkind, Bank of America Climate Change Research Fellow, UC Berkeley School of Law and UCLA School of Law

Panel Synopsis: Climate change is global in scope, but its impact varies drastically across communities.  Some groups, such as indigenous peoples, agrarian populations, the urban and rural poor, and islanders are particularly vulnerable to extreme climate changes—for instance, in the form of drought, flood, or rising sea levels—on their way of life. This panel examines the current social injustices faced by these vulnerable populations both domestically and internationally, and implications on intra- and interstate migration, refugees, and national security.  The panel explores practical ways to address these social injustices through mitigation, political voice, and new and innovative legal frameworks to deal with the social justice crisis of our generation.

Three Degrees with Jeni Barcelos & Jen Marlow

1.00-1.20      Exhibition of Regional Organizations

Featured Presentation.  Three Degrees with Jeni Barcelos & Jen Marlow, Founders and Co-Executive Director

Constitutional Right to Environment

1.35-2.55 Panel 2. A Constitutional Right to Environment: A Comparative Lens on South Africa,
India, and the USA
Co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society, the International Law Society, & The Federalist Society

• Facilitated by Joseph DiMento , Professor of Planning, Policy, and Design, School of Social Ecology, and Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law

• Panelists include:

• Deepa Badrinarayana, Assistant Professor of Law, Chapman University School of Law
• Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law,University of California, Irvine, School of Law
• Eric Christiansen, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship, Golden Gate University School of Law

Panel Synopsis: Is there a constitutional right to the environment? How has such a right been implemented in countries throughout the world? How does this thirdgeneration human right fit within the existing corpus of international human rights instruments? How does a constitutional right to the environment relate to current efforts to address climate change from a legal perspective? This panel focuses on responding to these queries and developing an understanding of the viability of a constitutional right to the environment as a legal tool to aid in the pursuit of attaining climate justice.

Urban Habitat

2.55-3.15        Exhibition of Regional Organizations
Featured Presentation. Urban Habitat with Bob Allen, Director of Transportation and Housing Programs

Climate Change Litigation

3.30-4.50      
Co-sponsored by the Orange County Human Rights Association

• Facilitated by Cara Horowitz, Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Executive Director, Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, UCLA School of Law

• Panelists include:

• Hari Osofsky, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Law
• Neil Popović, Partner, Business Trial practice group, and Chair, International Arbitration Practice, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
• Mary Wood, Philip H. Knight Professor of Law, and Faculty Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, University of Oregon School of Law

Panel Synopsis: Litigation has emerged as a potentially fruitful avenue to argue for changes in climate regulation or claim relief for past and future injuries of climate change victims. This panel discusses the evolving state of climate change litigation, highlighting the successes and failures of the few climate change cases that have been pursued both domestically and internationally.  The panel will then evolve into an interactive strategy session, where panelists and audience members can debate venue, defendants, and legal theory in order to identify promising litigation strategies for the future.

If you have any comments on this panel or topic, please comment here.

Comment here!

Conclusion. Lessons on Strategy & Moving Forward

This is more than a conference. It’s a call to action. Please comment here about next steps!