Claremont Canyon Conservancy v. Regents of the University of California

The California Court of Appeal found that the environmental impact report prepared by the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley (Regents) for vegetation removal projects to reduce wildfire risk complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Among the arguments rejected by the court was a contention that the EIR did not discuss how implementing the vegetation removal plan might worsen the effects of future climate change on the project areas. The court wrote that this argument “need not detain us long” because the petitioner had acknowledged that “the EIR acknowledges the climate may change in the project areas; examines whether implementation of the plan will increase greenhouse gas emissions; and discusses whether climate change will increase wildfire risk.” Regarding the Regents’ contention that they did not have an obligation to analyze the impact of climate change on the projects, the court noted that the petitioner had argued not that the EIR was required to consider how climate change would affect the projects but that the EIR had to consider the projects’ effects under future climate change conditions.