Rethinking Environmental Governance: Reflections from Adapting to High Level Warming
If you're interested in purchasing Adapting to High Level Warming: Law, Governance, and Equity, please visit ELI's website for more information.
What happens when climate projections exceed our current legal frameworks and planning models? In this episode of People Places Planet, host Dara Albrecht explores the provocative premise behind Adapting to High Level Warming, the fifth volume in the Environmental Law Collaborative’s book series published by ELI Press. Joined by editors Katrina Kuh and Shannon Roesler, as well as chapter authors Sarah Fox and Kevin Lynch, the conversation delves into how legal scholars are grappling with the likelihood of 3–4°C warming scenarios.
Fox introduces the concept of “climate-changed communities” and the pressures local governments face as they adapt to new environmental realities. Lynch discusses the double-edged nature of preemption law, which can either enable or obstruct needed climate action at the local level. With commentary from editors Katrina Kuh and Shannon Roesler, the conversation highlights how law and governance must be reimagined and stretched to meet the needs of a radically changed climate. With insights ranging from historic preservation to energy policy, this episode underscores why preparing for worst-case scenarios is no longer alarmist—but necessary.
Featured chapters:
What happens when climate projections exceed our current legal frameworks and planning models? In this episode of People Places Planet, host Dara Albrecht explores the provocative premise behind Adapting to High Level Warming, the fifth volume in the Environmental Law Collaborative’s book series published by ELI Press. Joined by editors Katrina Kuh and Shannon Roesler, as well as chapter authors Sarah Fox and Kevin Lynch, the conversation delves into how legal scholars are grappling with the likelihood of 3–4°C warming scenarios.
Fox introduces the concept of “climate-changed communities” and the pressures local governments face as they adapt to new environmental realities. Lynch discusses the double-edged nature of preemption law, which can either enable or obstruct needed climate action at the local level. With commentary from editors Katrina Kuh and Shannon Roesler, the conversation highlights how law and governance must be reimagined and stretched to meet the needs of a radically changed climate. With insights ranging from historic preservation to energy policy, this episode underscores why preparing for worst-case scenarios is no longer alarmist—but necessary.
Featured chapters:
- Climate-Changed Communities (07:53) by Sarah Fox.
- Preemption: Opportunities and Obstacles for Climate Adaptation (31:39) by Kevin J. Lynch.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dara Albrecht
Dara Albrecht joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Research Associate in August 2023. She is currently working on the Climate Judiciary Project and the Global Marine Protected Areas project. Dara is also the host of People Places Planet Podcast. She has previously contributed to the Environmental Law Reporter, the Belize Fisheries Project, and ELI’s Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Evaluation. Prior to joining ELI, Dara pursued desert ecology research at the University of Sydney in Australia and served as a reviewer and writer for articles published in “Biodiversity Islands: Strategies for Conservation in Human-Dominated Environments (2022).” She co-authored “The biogeochemical boomerang: Site fidelity creates nutritional hotspots that may promote recurrent calving site reuse,” published in August 2024. Other work includes translating the Reef Environmental Education Foundation’s citizen science material to Spanish to increase accessibility for Latinx communities and leading conservation planning projects with the US Forest Service and California Bureau of Land Management. Dara is a two-time awardee of the Richter Fellowship, and is also a Curtis Travelling Fellow, Bruce M. Babcock Travel Research Fellow, and Tetelman Fellow for International Research in Sciences. Dara is passionate about using science to develop successful conservation planning and shape policy. As a Peruvian citizen with roots in the Amazon, she is an advocate for cross-cultural environmental collaboration and developing just solutions for vulnerable communities who are impacted by climate change. Dara is a 2023 graduate from Yale University with a B.S. in Environmental Science with a concentration in Biodiversity and Conservation. Her senior thesis was an independent research project focused on the stoichiometry of caribou diet across Newfoundland and its conservation implications. Dara would like to honor with gratitude all the ancestral stewards of this land, past and present, and acknowledge the ancestral and unceded native territory on which ELI sits today.
Editor
Sebastian Duque Rios
Sebastian Duque Rios joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Research Associate in August 2024. He provides editorial support for the People Places Planet Podcast.
