A lawsuit filed by three South Carolina-based environmental groups challenged the issuance of a Clean Water Act permit authorizing the filling of wetlands for construction of a mixed-use residential and commercial development in Berkeley County near Charleston. The plaintiffs asserted claims under the Clean Water Act, NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. Under the ESA, their arguments included that the biological opinion for the project failed to consider the impacts of climate change on the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Under the Clean Water Act, the plaintiffs contended, among other arguments, that the permit allowed for significant degradation of wetlands that would make residents more vulnerable to flooding and that unnecessary placement of development in locations vulnerable to future sea level rise, flooding, and storm surge would have significant adverse economic effects. Under NEPA, the plaintiffs asserted that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to take a hard look at the project’s impacts and that the proposed project required an environmental impact statement, including because of “unique risks posed regarding flooding and development within the floodplain.”

Challenge to the issuance of a Clean Water Act permit authorizing the filling of wetlands for construction of a mixed-use residential and commercial development in South Carolina.

South Carolina Coastal Conservation League v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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Environmental Groups Challenged Permit for Mixed-Use Development on Wetlands in South Carolina

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

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Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

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Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

A company that is owned wholly or partially by the state, typically operating in key sectors.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

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Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

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Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

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Environmental Groups Challenged Permit for Mixed-Use Development on Wetlands in South Carolina

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance