Evolution of U.S. Climate Law and Policy

This paper provides an overview of the development of U.S. government law and policy concerning climate change. It is from Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, Third Edition (Michael B Gerrard, Jody Freeman, and Michael Burger eds. 2023). U.S. government efforts to address climate change can be grouped into five categories: (1) measures promoting federal climate change research, which provide the foundation for later developments; (2) environmental, energy, and natural resource laws; (3) other laws and policies, including those involving administrative practice, financial regulation, procurement and property management, technological innovation, and economic development; (4) the U.S. role in international agreements concerning climate change; and (5) new congressional efforts to pass comprehensive climate change legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act . This paper focuses on key developments at the national level, particularly those intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions