About
The Private Climate Governance Lab focuses on private-sector climate mitigation and adaptation. Through scholarship, education, and cross-sectoral collaboration, the Lab provides feasible solutions to practitioners.
About the Lab
Vanderbilt Law School’s Energy, Environment & Land Use Program prides itself on being a pioneer in the study of private-sector agreements, standards, and practices to promote sustainability and reduce environmental impacts. The Private Climate Governance Lab builds upon Vanderbilt's innovative environmental law curriculum, which prepares students for public and private governance concepts by providing conceptual and applied research opportunities to students. Our team is focused on producing innovative scholarship, practical resources, and student learning opportunities to address the need for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Bold climate action must be mainstreamed across all functions of government and all aspects of business and investment, with public and private sectors working in concert, together with communities and experts, leaving no one behind.
Our Team
Michael P. Vandenbergh
David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law
Director, Climate Change Research Network
Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program
J.B. Ruhl
David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law
Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor (2024-25)
Director, Program on Law and Innovation
Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program
Caroline G. Cox
Adjunct Professor of Law
Program Director, Energy, Environment & Land Use Program
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Lab Faculty Book Publications
Concepts & Insights
Private Environmental Governance
In the face of government gridlock, the new field of private environmental governance has emerged. Private Environmental Governance (Concepts and Insights), co-authored by Vanderbilt Law Professor Michael P. Vandenbergh, Sarah E. Light of the Wharton School, and James Salzman of UCLA Law School, seeks to help students and practitioners learn about PEG's themes, features, and people.
The Private Governance Response to Climate Change
Beyond Politics
In their book, Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change, Michael Vandenbergh and co-author Jonathan M. Gilligan, associate professor of earth and environmental science, make the case for how the private sector and businesses can fill the environmental gap. Vandenbergh and Gilligan point to numerous ways private-sector companies can benefit by taking environmentally friendly actions.