The climate crisis is spurring increasing and intensified conflict, and with so much at stake on all sides, zero-sum, partisan, and protectionist approaches are more likely to create impasse and generate further conflict than they are to bring lasting solutions. On the other hand, diplomatic, mutual-gains negotiations prompted by the climate crisis have the potential to strengthen local, national, and international institutions so they are better positioned to tackle—and even prevent—future climate conflicts. To further our understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities, CNI brought together four experts to discuss what, in their experience, makes dispute resolution different in the era of climate crisis and how that informs their work. In a discussion moderated by CNI Principal, Krista deBoer, our panelists shared their insights from engaging in climate-based negotiations, seeking long-term resolutions to high-stakes climate disputes, and working to build capacity for climate-conflict resolution.

Erin Ryan is the Elizabeth C. & Clyde W. Atkinson Professor and Associate Dean for Environmental Programs at the Florida State University College of Law. She is the author of many scholarly works, including Federalism and the Tug of War Within (Oxford University Press 2012). Prior to law school, Ryan served as a U.S. Forest Service ranger on the Mono Lake District of the Inyo National Forest, east of Yosemite National Park.

Lucy Moore has been a practicing mediator, facilitator, consultant and trainer since the late 1980s. Her focus has been natural resources and public policy disputes, and her clients have included federal, state and local agencies, tribal governments and communities, public interest organizations and industry. With a strong background in Indian country, many of her cases involve tribal interests and parties. Lucy is also the author of Common Ground on Hostile Turf: Stories from an Environmental Mediator (2013, Island Press) and Into the Canyon: Seven Years in Navajo Country, (2004, University of New Mexico Press). 

Joaquin Esquivel is Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary for federal water policy at the California Natural Resources Agency in the Governor’s Washington, D.C. office. For more than eight years prior to that he worked for U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer of California, most recently as her legislative assistant covering the agriculture, Native American, water, oceans, and nutrition portfolios, in addition to being the director of information and technology.

Sue Biniaz served as the lead climate lawyer for the U.S. State Department for more than 25 years. In that capacity, she played a central role in all major international climate negotiations, including the Paris Agreement on climate change. Since leaving the State Department, Sue has been teaching courses on international environmental law and the international climate negotiations at various law schools, including Yale, Columbia, and the University of Chicago.