About
The Model Climate Laws Initiative (MCLI) helps state and local leaders turn climate goals into durable, effective policy. A joint project of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Advocates NY, MCLI develops model legislation and curates proven approaches from across the country.
We give policymakers, advocates, and attorneys ready-to-use resources they can adapt for their own jurisdictions. MCLI provides template bill text and other legal resources, for free, with a focus on the state and municipal levels.
Our premise is simple: no state or community seeking to advance climate policy should have to start from scratch. MCLI focuses not only on getting good policies enacted, but ensuring legislation can be effectively implemented and withstand legal challenges.
Our Priorities
MCLI works across the major sectors needed to address climate change, with particular emphasis on policies that:
- Strengthen state and local leadership by filling gaps in federal policy, responding to federal rollbacks, and protecting state authority.
- Pair climate action with economic benefits like greater affordability, energy reliability, job creation, and healthier communities.
- Address emerging issues or are responsive to constituent needs, such as policies related to responsible data center development.
- Can spread across jurisdictions, turning successful approaches in one state or municipality into models for action elsewhere.
- Advance climate justice by considering how climate impacts—and climate solutions—affect historically overburdened communities.
How We Got Here
MCLI grew out of the industry-defining book, Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, edited by Michael B. Gerrard and John C. Dernbach. This legal encyclopedia brought together 59 experts to identify more than 1,500 legal options for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions across economic sectors. MCLI takes the next step: translating those pathways and emerging policy innovations into practical resources policymakers can put to work – and into law.
Today, MCLI is a collaboration between Environmental Advocates NY and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, combining practical policy implementation roadmaps with deep legal expertise.