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Showing 11 results

David Hunter

Professor of Law

Grand Canyon landscape with gray clouds

David Hunter, Shade Streeter, William Snape, III | September 1, 2022

Revitalizing a Forgotten Treaty on Nature Protection

Our hemisphere’s shared natural heritage is threatened. The Convention on Nature Protection and Wild Life Preservation is a low-risk, high-reward pathway for the Biden administration to strengthen our strategic relationships in the hemisphere.

David Hunter | September 18, 2019

The World Bank Considers Stepping Back from Accountability

For nearly two years, the World Bank Board of Directors has fumbled what should be an easy decision to modernize its Inspection Panel, the primary institution that addresses the damage the Bank's lending can do to local communities. At issue is whether the Panel should be able to monitor the Bank's implementation of Management Action […]

David Hunter | May 5, 2017

Trump’s Fossil Fuel Dream Team Faces Climate Change’s Checks and Balances

Due to the blinders of his fossil fuel dream team and the industry’s myths denying climate change (#ExxonKnew), President Donald Trump seems once again on the verge of withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord. That’s a fool’s errand. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement would be a major blow to U.S. standing and leadership in […]

David Hunter | November 26, 2013

Making private companies pay their share for climate change: a new study could revive climate change litigation

Efforts to hold private companies responsible for their contribution to climate change just took a big step forward, thanks to researcher Rick Heede.  For the past eight years, Heede has painstakingly compiled the historical contribution of fossil fuel companies to today’s concentrations of greenhouse gases.  According to Heede’s study ”Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane […]

David Hunter | December 4, 2012

World Bank Risks Weakening Environmental and Social Standards

The World Bank has started a process that appears likely to weaken its environmental and social safeguard policies.  Although the Bank has repeatedly stated there will be no “dilution” of the policies, the Bank’s scoping paper released in October and its ongoing consultations clearly reveal a desire to replace clear standards with discretion and deference […]

David Hunter | June 19, 2012

Meeting Low Expectations at Rio+20

This is not your father’s Earth Summit.  This week’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development is meant to assess how far we’ve come from the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (ambitiously named the Earth Summit).  And the 1992 Earth Summit was ambitious, featuring the largest gathering of world leaders in history as well as […]

David Hunter | May 2, 2012

Executive Order Embraces International Regulatory Race to the Bottom as Official Administration Policy

On one level, President Obama’s Executive Order issued Tuesday, “Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation,” seems benign enough.  After all, who would be against international cooperation and a desire to “reduce, eliminate or prevent unnecessary differences in regulatory requirements”?  Moreover, the Order on its face does little more than set out priorities and procedures for enhancing international […]

David Hunter | February 27, 2012

Extending Protection to Wildlife: Why the United States Should Ratify the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

a(broad) perspective Today’s post is first in a series on a recent CPR white paper, Reclaiming Global Environmental Leadership: Why the United States Should Ratify Ten Pending Environmental Treaties.  Each month, this series will discuss one of these ten treaties.  Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels Adopted and Opened for Signature on June […]

David Hunter | December 16, 2009

Cap, But no Trade for Bella Center Passes; Meanwhile, Conference’s Legacy of Transparency in Danger

Environmental negotiations have long set the standard for transparency and participation. The relationship between environmental organizations (of all kinds) and the negotiators has always been one tempered by a shared vision that the negotiations would succeed (in contrast to negotiations at the WTO or World Bank where “success” for many activists was often defined as […]