Aimed at a nonspecialist audience, this book provides concise and comprehensible answers to the core questions cities confront when seeking to develop legally sound local climate policy.

Michael Burger is the executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and a senior research scholar at Columbia Law School. His previous books include Global Climate Change and U.S. Law (third edition, 2023). He is also of counsel at Sher Edling LLP.

Amy E. Turner is the director of the Cities Climate Law Initiative at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and an associate research scholar at Columbia Law School. She previously cofounded a climate nonprofit and practiced environmental law in New York City.

Katrina M. Wyman, Wilf Family Professor of Property Law and Faculty Director, Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law, New York University School of Law:
Michael Burger and Amy E. Turner provide an excellent high-level overview of how U.S. cities can enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the legal obstacles they may face.

Laura Jay, regional director for North America, C40 Cities:
Urban Climate Law is the resource by lawyers for city practitioners that we’ve been waiting for. As climate change policy in cities requires governments to act boldly and think creatively, there is a constant stream of legal questions that create uncertainty at the local level. This book is going to be the building block needed to unlock city-led action in addressing the climate crisis.

Michael B. Gerrard, professor and faculty director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School:
Cities are central to addressing the biggest sources of greenhouse gases—transportation, buildings, energy generation, and waste. Doing so is legally complex. This book is the first to delineate the legal frameworks and areas of law that apply to local climate policy making. It will help local governments craft sounder policies with increased awareness of the legal constraints and opportunities within which cities operate.

Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and first White House National Climate Advisor:
Local governments are often seen as the engines of climate innovation, and they are. Cities imagine, test, and implement new approaches that, when successful, are adopted across states and beyond. Urban Climate Law provides an important and accessible resource that outlines, in plain language, the legal guardrails that must be considered by local governments as they create new pathways for climate progress.