Sue Biniaz
SENIOR FELLOW FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
For more than 25 years, Sue Biniaz served as the lead climate lawyer for the U.S. State Department. In that capacity, she played a central role in all major international climate negotiations, including the Paris Agreement on climate change. During her tenure at the State Department, as a Deputy Legal Adviser, she also supervised the Treaty Office and issues related to the law of the sea, Somali piracy, the Western Hemisphere, human rights, law enforcement, and private international law. Prior to that, she led the State Department’s legal office for Oceans, Environment, and Science, as well as the legal office for European Affairs.
She clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attended Yale College, and earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
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.
Publications
Climate Change
- Reversing the Paris Reversal...and More (2020)
- Solar climate Intervention: Options for International Assessment and Decision-Making (2020)
- After Madrid, W[h]ither the COP? (2020)
- (Co-Editor) Cool Heads in a Warming World: How Trade Policy Can Help Fight Climate Change (2020)
- Returning to Paris: The Next U.S. NDC (2020)
- Paris Cannot Do It Alone (A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future (Yale School of the Environment, 2019))
- Solar Geoengineering: Hard Issues and the Limits of Environmental Principles (p. 115) (2019)
- The Lawfare Podcast: Sue Biniaz on the Trump Administration and International Climate Policy (2019)
- The Who, What, and When of Flexibility in the Paris Agreement’s Transparency Framework (2018)
- The Paris Agreement at Three Years Old: The Doctor's Report (2018)
- An Overview of International Climate Change Law, Including the Paris Agreement (Australian Law Journal, 2018)
- What Happened to Byrd-Hagel? Its Curious Absence from Evaluations of the Paris Agreement (2018)
- Article 13 of the Paris Agreement: Reflecting “Flexibility” in the Enhanced Transparency Framework (IDDRI, 2018)
- Elaborating Article 15 of the Paris Agreement: Facilitating Implementation and Promoting Compliance (IDDRI, 2017)
- Analyzing Articles 6.2 and 6.4 Along a “Nationally” and “Internationally” Determined Continuum (Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, 2017)
- Elaborating the Paris Agreement: Potential Linkages Between Articles 13, 14, and 15 (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2017)
- ICAO’s CORSIA and the Paris Agreement: Cross-Cutting Issues (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2017)
- Here’s How U.S. Cities and States Can Help Drive Climate Action (National Geographic/Years of Living Dangerously, 2017)
- (Contributor), D.C. Circuit Decision on HFC Rule: Implications for U.S. Implementation of Kigali and Alternative Regulatory Pathways (2017)
- (Contributor) How the United States Can Remain Engaged in International Climate Finance (Center for American Progress, 2017)
- The U.S. Communication Regarding Intent to Withdraw from the Paris Agreement: What Does It Mean? (2017)
- (Contributor) Legal Issues Related to the Paris Agreement (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2017)
- Act Locally, Reflect Globally: A Checklist of Options for U.S. Cities and States to Engage Internationally in Climate Action (2017)
- I Beg to Differ: Taking Account of National Circumstances under the Paris Agreement, the ICAO Market-Based Measure, and the Montreal Protocol’s HFC Amendment (2017)
- Comma but Differentiated Responsibilities: Punctuation and 30 Other Ways Negotiators Have Resolved Differences in the International Climate Change Regime (Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law, 2016)
- Climate Change Negotiations: Legal and Other Issues on the Road to Paris (Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, 2016)
International Environmental Law
Biodiversity
