Climate Change and Sustainability : Home

Duquesne Kline Law Library Guides

• Administrative Law
• Energy and Climate Law
• Environmental Law

Search the Catalog for Books

Use your Multipass credentials to log in.

• Climate change
• Sustainability 

Ebooks

• Adjudicating Climate Change: State, National and International Approaches edited by William C.G. Burns and Hari M. Osofsky
• Climate Change Litigation and Law edited by Jean-Francois Masson
• Legal Perspective on Sustainability by Margherita Pieraccini and Tonia Novitz

Law Review Journal Articles

• Climate Change Litigation and Narrative Examines social science research and real-world examples to recommend how climate advocates  can best communicate their client's stories in and outside the court.
• Heeding the Call: Making Sustainability a Matter of Pennsylvania Law Written by former Duquesne Law Associate Professor Nancy Spyke, this article details the lack of comprehensive reforms relating to sustainability in the U.S., in contrast with developments in Pennsylvania law.
• Low Carbon Land Use: Paris, Pittsburgh, and the IPCC Discusses efforts to reduce carbon reliance through local zoning and land use laws in Pittsburgh after the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement to highlight how local governments can play a role in climate change mitigation.
• Rethinking Sustainability to Meet the Climate Change Challenge Inaugural publication of the Environmental Law Collaborative interrogating the meaning of "sustainability" and immediate and future impacts of climate change on society.
•  Sustainable Development in Law Practice: A Lens for Addressing All Legal Problems Explores what lawyers who work in the field of sustainability law do and how they conceptualize their work through qualitative interviews.

International Law

• The Paris Agreement Overview of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 Parties at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. 

• Is the Paris Climate Agreement binding? Experts explain World Economic Forum article discussing why the Paris Agreement, while described as a legally binding document, requires signers participate in the process of participation, but lacks enforceability of the obligations themselves. 

Domestic Law

• Climate Change Laws of the World Free database and interactive map of climate change laws, targets and litigation cases in countries around the globe.

U.S Federal Law

• Climate Change Regulatory Actions and Initiatives Resource page updated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that houses reports, fact sheets and  announcements relating to actions taken by the federal government to address climate change.

• National Climate Task Force Group 25 Cabinet-level federal leaders working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, producing carbon-pollution free electricity, and other environmental, economic and social goals. 

State Law

• State and Local Climate Change Resource Center Collection of state and local initiatives on climate change, renewable energy and efficiency compiled by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University Law School.

• StateImpact Climate Change Explainer Collaborative effort by NPR and local member stations to highlight news stories about climate change, energy and environmental issues in Pennsylvania. 

• Pennsylvania Climate Change Act of 2008 (Act 70) Established the Climate Change Advisory Committee to advise the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on the implementation of the Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

• Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan Written by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Climate Change Advisory Committee and submitted to the Governor in 2021, this plan includes mitigation strategies, as well as the current and project impacts of climate change on the Commonwealth. 

Municipal Law

• City of Pittsburgh’s Climate Action 3.0 Plan The City of Pittsburgh’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within city limits and within City operations.

• EcoDistrict Certification Pittsburgh-adjacent municipalities Etna, Millvale and Sharpsburg became the first three EcoDistrict-certified communities in the world, a recognition of their demonstrated commitment to a sustainable, equitable response to social and environmental challenges.