Enviro Law Conference to Focus on Innovation and Disruptive Strategies

The sixth annual Yale New Directions in Environmental Law Conference (NDEL 2016) will take place at  Yale Law School on February 26-27, 2016.

Jointly organized by the Yale Environmental Law Association (YELA) at Yale Law School and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES), NDEL 2016 will feature keynote addresses, three conference-wide panels, and over 10 breakout sessions all convened under the theme of “Cascading Change: Innovation, Organizing, and Disruptive Strategies.” Through this lens, the sessions will explore approaches to reshape and improve our legal, social, political, and physical environments by: engaging global environmental constituencies; reimagining energy infrastructure and regulations; recruiting corporate players and strategies; and creating robust collaborative solutions to environmental problems at all levels.

“The conference covers a lot of ground, and rightfully so,” said Josh Galperin, Clinical Director and Lecturer at Yale Law School and Environmental Law and Policy Program Director at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “These issues and debates are key to successful environmental law and policy, and the program does not shy away from points of dispute or controversy.”

The conference will feature keynote addresses from Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, and Christy Goldfuss, Managing Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. It will also feature a remote opening address from Bill McKibben, best-selling author and co-founder of 350.org.

In addition to these speakers, over 30 environmental lawyers, regulators, academics, and practitioners will converge at NDEL 2016 to share their expertise and engage in dialogue on a variety of topics covering today’s most pressing environmental concerns.

 As one of the largest student-run conferences at Yale, NDEL 2016 will feature discussions on essential and emerging issues in environmental law and policy, including:

·        Innovation in military environmental policy

·        Organized labor and environmental law

·        Post-conflict environmental impact

·        Clean energy finance

·        Climate change litigation

·        State-level utility regulation

·        American Indian water rights

·        Climate change adaptation

·        Forest resiliency 

“We are thrilled to be able to expand the conference to a two-day event this year, which allows us to bring even more of the nation’s leaders on environmental policy to campus; and of course none of this would have been possible without our sponsors,” noted Stefanie Wnuck, (FES 2016), NDEL conference co-chair.

NDEL 2016 is sponsored by the Eisenson Dean’s Discretionary Fund at Yale Law School, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Mr. Kenneth Raisler, and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

The conference is free for all members of the Yale community as well as New Haven residents.

For more information and to register, please refer to the official NDEL 2016 website or contact the NDEL 2016 Organizing Committee at YaleEnvLawConference@yale.edu.

You can also follow the conference live on twitter using the hashtag #NDEL2016.