EEM Newsletter Fall/ Winter 2022-2023

EEMI Conducts Wartime Symposium with Sixteen Ukrainian Delegates
On September 2, 2022, EEMI conducted a symposium on “Russia's War, the World's Food: The Successes and Challenges of Ukrainian Agricultural Producers in the Midst of War” in the Lehman Auditorium of the Science and Engineering Hall. The event was extraordinary in that it was conducted at the height Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and yet featured the presence of 16 Ukrainian delegates fresh from the war.

EEMI Leads GW Delegation to COP27
EEMI Director of Operations Dr. Mukes Kapilashrami coordinated the planning and led a session by GW’s five-person delegation to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022. The GW session, held in the UNFCCC Pavilion in the COP27 Blue Zone, on November 17, 2022, was entitled “Eco-Smart Inclusive Governance.”

EEMI Hosts Climate Training for Federal Judges
On August 29, 2022, the GW EEMI, in conjunction with the Environmental Law Institute, hosted a half-day seminar for federal judges in the Lehman Auditorium of the Science and Engineering Hall. The seminar, entitled “Seminar on Climate Science and the Energy Transition in Climate Litigation,” was the latest version of the multi-year Climate Judiciary Project in which EEMI and the ELI are cooperating. The objective of the program is to provide neutral, objective information to the judiciary about climate science and law. This is especially important today because of the exponential increase our nation is experiencing in terms of climate-related litigation at all levels.

Prof. Deason Serves as Plenary Speaker at Natural Resources Symposium
On September 19, 2022, EEMI Director Jonathan Deason served as the opening plenary speaker for the second day of the 2022 Natural Resources Symposium that was held in the GW Law School. Other speakers included Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean of the George Washington University Law School; Roger Martella, Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, GE; Jordan Diamond, President, Environmental Law Institute; John Cruden, former Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources; Sally Fisk, Chief Counsel - Environmental & Sustainability Law, Pfizer, Inc.; Nathaniel Keohane, President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions; and Emily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Edison Electric Institute.

UNFCCC Secretariat Awards Climate Change Research Grant to EEMI
On September 27, 2022, GW’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute was awarded a grant from the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to develop a guide for participants in UNFCCC climate change processes. The project includes preparing three asynchronous web-based courses providing an orientation to compliance and implementation requirements under the Paris Agreement as well as background on law and governance foundations underlying the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

News of EEM Students and Faculty
News of EEM Students and Faculty from the Fall and Winter 2022-2023
Newsletter Editor: Sierra Gabriel