Disasters, Climate Change, and Declaring a Climate “Emergency”

This will be a lunch session with the Berkeley Law Center for Law, Energy & the Environment’s Faculty Director Dan Farber. Professor Farber will discuss disaster law, which promises to become an increasingly important subject as the frequency of extreme weather events grows. In dealing with these increased levels of risk, the entire disaster cycle must be considered, from pre-disaster risk mitigation to emergency response, followed by insurance and compensation, and rebuilding. This talk will provide a framework for planning in the face of uncertainty; property and land-use rules; sensitivity to issues of social justice; the international framework for emergency disaster response; and the timely question of whether to declare a climate “emergency.”