Delaney’s Blog | The Sink or Swim Project | miamisearise.com

Bonn Voyage!

June 10, 2025 DReynolds

As part of my academic studies and research, I’m heading to Bonn, Germany, to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body meetings. This is the 62nd version of these annual meetings, known as Subsidiary Bodies meetings (AKA SB62), and I will be an official observer through the University of Miami, where I earned my Juris Doctorate law degree last year and am currently completing my Ph.D. studies in climate resilience and environmental law.

It’s at these meetings that the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) conduct much of the technical and operational groundwork for global climate action that happens by the world’s nations. While the higher-profile Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, such as those I’ve attended in recent years in Egypt (COP27) and Dubai (COP28), often make global headlines, the Subsidiary Bodies quietly drive the actual implementation of the Paris Agreement. And while the COP meetings move to various host cities each year, such as Belem, Brazil, this coming November, each year the Subsidiary Body meetings occur in Bonn and it is here that negotiators from around the world develop rules, evaluate progress, and build the systems that countries depend on to meet their climate commitments.

These annual sessions are absolutely critical for countries like the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the Pacific Ocean at the frontlines of the climate crisis, mainly including sea level rise and a warming ocean’s impact on the fisheries they depend on for much of their food supply. As part of my studies, I’ll be partnering with FSM, which has long punched above its weight as a vocal powerhouse in international climate negotiations, championing ambitious climate finance goals, advancing loss and damage support, and leading global efforts on short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane and HFCs. For example, their updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) lays out bold targets across renewable energy, food and water security, coastal resilience, and disaster preparedness.

This opportunity to intimately observe FSM’s delegation and participate in the Subsidiary Body meetings will allow me to gain insight into how climate diplomacy works behind the scenes. The experience is deeply meaningful to me both academically and personally, and it’s a privilege to learn from FSM’s leadership while witnessing firsthand how countries like it advocate for justice, equity, and survival in multilateral spaces.

To learn more about FSM, the plight they face against climate change, and some of the incredible work they are doing by using science and traditional knowledge to protect and preserve their ocean resources, please check out this wonderful, brand-new documentary by National Geographic:

Allow me to end this post by extending my heartfelt thanks to those folks who have made this possible. Thank you to Dr. Jessica Owley and Val Fajardo, Environmental Law Fellow, at the University of Miami School of Law, whose mentorship and guidance have long supported my path in climate law and international environmental governance. And, thank you to the incredible team representing the Federated States of Micronesia, including Ana Maria Kleymeyer, Lucille Apis-Overhoff, Correy Abraham, and Clement Yow Mulalap, who, despite often challenging conditions due to our climate crisis, continue to lead with brilliance, urgency, and compassion.

As time allows, I will look forward to updating you on the UN negotiations from Bonn. Until then, “Bonn” voyage!

Climate Change, Delaney Reynolds, Eco Warrior, Global Warming, Miami, Miamisearise.com, Politics, Sea Level Rise, Sea Rise, Subsidiary Body, The Sink or Swim Project

Climate Change (Again) Tops List of Risk Managers’ Concerns

June 7, 2025 DReynolds

My family has been in the insurance and risk management business here in South Florida for over a century, starting in 1910 with my great-grandfather, and continuing through my father’s recent retirement in 2023. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my family after three generations in that industry, it’s that the business of predicting and managing risk is a serious, typically conservative one in which it’s critical that the perils, as they are called, that cause losses to take place are skillfully understood. Misunderstanding or miscalculating risks from perils such as flooding, windstorm, or extreme heat, for example, can be the difference between whether insurers and the enterprises they protect are profitable or, for that matter, stay in business.

For these reasons, the 18th Annual Emerging Risk Survey from the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries again caught my attention as respondents ranked climate change as the number one emerging risk that concerns them. At a time when Earth’s rising temperatures and the resulting problems they cause are often sadly politicized or diminished in alarmingly shortsighted ways, the serious folks who actually analyze risk (actuaries); seek ways to mitigate, avoid, and manage it (risk managers); and financially protect others from those risks (insurers and reinsurers) understand that our climate change crisis is real and that its growing worse.

Here are the top five Emerging Risks:

1. Climate Change & 2. War, including civil wars (Tie)

3. Disruptive technology

4. Cyber/network security

5. Demographic shift

“Risk manager concerns in the current survey focus on climate, disruptive technology, and wars, continuing previous years’ trends. Artificial intelligence (AI) risks were also surveyed, with concern mainly on cybersecurity and manipulation, and many departments within companies being involved in managing components of these AI risks.”
Executive Summary / Key Findings, 18th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks (01/2025)
Society of Actuaries Research Institute

The survey asks respondents to select their top concerns from 23 different risks and asks risk managers to rank both current and emerging risks. It uses four categories to then measure and rank various risks: top current risk, the leading five emerging risks, overall emerging risk, and emerging risk combinations. This year’s survey included responses from 201 participants, 95% of whom were based in North America, as well as folks from Africa, Asia, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Europe.

Climate change has been ranked the number one emerging risk each year since 2021, including in the most recent survey in which it shares the top spot with worries over war. Here is the summary of responses related to climate change as an emerging risk, followed by the recent report’s notes related to climate change:

The green arrows capture the general trend, based on the emerging risk response (light blue bars), and show a slight dip from previous highs, but remains as a top emerging risk. Note that the 2024 midyear and 2023 midyear numbers are slightly out of trend as these are based on the flash survey results, a lighter version of the survey conducted in May and not the full survey conducted in November.
The current risk in dark blue shows a similar trend, slight dip from recent history but remains high. Note that Climate change is the third current risk after Wars (including civil wars) and Financial volatility.
Climate change is chosen frequently when the respondents are picking their top five risks, red bars, but also a slight dip compared with historical trends. Note that Climate change is the most popular choice, tied with Wars (including civil wars).
Remaining elevated after a slight decrease is the trend shown by the yellow bars, representing the relative number of times Climate change has been selected in risk combinations. This risk is one of the most selected within these combinations, just after Wars and Financial volatility. Note that the mid-year flash surveys do not ask for combination of risk, thus present no yellow bars.

For a decade now, I’ve been saying that the time has come to set politics aside and face the reality of our warming climate and the resulting risks it presents to our environment and society. If those professional people charged with the serious business of predicting, managing, and protecting against those risks keep ranking our climate crisis as their top concern, shouldn’t the rest of us?

To read the entire SPA Research Institute report, including prior years’ editions, please click here.

Annual Survey of Emerging Risks, Casualty Actuarial Society, Climate Change, Delaney Reynolds, Eco Warrior, Global Warming, Miami, Miamisearise.com, Politics, Risk Management, Sea Level Rise, Sea Rise, Society of Actuaries, The Sink or Swim Project

Why I’ve Sued President Trump & His Administration

June 3, 2025 DReynolds

“Trump’s fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation.”
Eva Lighthiser, Youth Plaintiff

I’ve often said that our global climate change crisis is the greatest challenge that today’s youth generations will ever face, and how we deal with it will define our time here on Earth. Unfortunately, since re-taking office early this year, America’s new President and his Administration have knowingly escalated our climate crisis by irresponsibly supporting a reckless increase in fossil fuel production, suppressing climate science (and scientific research in general), and blocking productive solutions to the problem in alarming, shortsighted ways that deeply damage our environment, citizens, and people around the world.

With Trump’s evolving environmental travesty in mind, I am pleased to share that young people all over our great country are fighting back and am proud to announce that last week (May 29, 2025) I joined 21 brave, young Americans in suing U.S. President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration in federal court in hopes of stopping his assault on our environment and citizens. Our lawsuit targets not only the President but various applicable agencies and departments within his Administration including the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Department of Transportation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Health.

Our new case, Lighthiser v. Trump, is what’s called a constitutional rights lawsuit designed to challenge the Trump Administration’s stated desire to “unleash fossil fuels” through a disturbing series of Executive Orders that accelerate fossil fuel expansion while blocking wind and solar energy, storage, efficiency, and electric vehicles, intensifing our climate emergency and suppressing critical climate science. My fellow plaintiffs and I are making two constitutional claims based on (1) violations of our rights to life and liberty under the Fifth Amendment and (2) executive overreach, which in legal terms is considered “ultra vires,” meaning the president has exceeded the legal limits of his power.

Our lawsuit primarily focuses on three of President Trump’s recent Executive Orders, including:

1. Executive Order 14154 “Unleashing American Energy“: The President’s Executive Order directs the federal government to “unleash fossil fuels” and block renewable energy efforts, including renewable energy storage and efficiency measures, as well as electric vehicles. It also directs his Administration to suppress science, remove it from government websites, and block the study, research, and dissemination of climate-oriented science and its solutions, amongst other nefarious steps.

The attack on our climate and environment over the first four months of the Trump presidency has been nothing short of savage. By one account, the Trump Administration has taken 140 actions to reduce or eliminate environmental rules so as to increase the use of fossil fuels since Inauguration Day.

Over the course of 24 hours in March of this year, for example, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency issued 31 actions designed to reduce pollution regulations on cars, trucks, and power plants, while also announcing that it would reevaluate its stance on whether fossil fuel emissions endanger public health. The President’s new EPA Administrator celebrated that day’s work by announcing that he was “driving a dagger into the heart of the climate religion,” and called it “the most consequential day of deregulation in American history.” Comments such as these from the person supposedly charged with protecting our environment and public health surely mark one of America’s saddest days, shocking people around the world.

2. Executive Order 14156 “Declaring a National Energy Emergency“: On his first day in office earlier this year, President Trump declared a national energy emergency designed to dramatically loosen a variety of existing laws and regulations that otherwise limit his administration’s ability to increase the production and use of fossil fuels.

Facts and the truth matter. And the truth is that America is facing a dire climate emergency, but is NOT suffering from a national energy emergency. Consider the following:

A) The United States produces more energy than it consumes. Year over year, America has a surplus in energy production.

B) The United States produces more oil than any nation in the world, and that has been the case for many years.

C) The United States produces more natural gas than any nation in the world, and that has also been the case for several years. America produces twice as much natural gas as Russia, the world’s second-largest producer.

D) The United States is the world’s largest exporter of gasoline, the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, and the fourth-largest exporter of coal.

3. Executive Order 14261 “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry“: This Executive Order intends to effectively increase coal production and use here in the United States.

President Trump has long been fixated on reviving the American coal industry to its past prominence, despite the fact that the country (and much of the world beyond) has been actively transitioning away from burning coal as an energy source for decades.

Two decades ago, coal accounted for approximately 50% of America’s energy; yet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, it now produces just 16.2% of our energy. Natural gas has significantly displaced coal and now accounts for 43.1% of our energy, while renewable energy sources, such as hydro, solar, and wind, continue to grow rapidly and currently account for 21.4% of America’s energy.

Even the coal industry largely knows it is a dying business. Existing American coal plants are antiquated relics that have operated, on average, for 53 years, yet the industry has not built a single new coal plant (thankfully) since 2013. In February 1985, the coal industry employed 173,000 people, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, as of March 2025, that figure has declined to just 41,200 people.

“Having young people rise up at a time when democracy is threatened and when there’s retaliation against so many people in this country for standing up against the administration, that is success. It’s about having the bravery to bring claims in the court, of not being afraid to use their rights.”
Julia Olson, Lead Lawyer for Lighthiser v. Trump & Founder of Our Children’s Trust

My friends and I believe that each of the President’s Executive Orders are unconstitutional and violate our fundamental rights to life and liberty, including our rights to health and safety and our access to state public trust resources, which are protected by the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Federal governmental actions that unleash fossil fuels and debilitate the Environmental Protection Agency from performing the job it was created to do, that terminate the National Climate Assessment, and that cut or defund scientific research are (to again use a term from my law school education) “ultra vires,” meaning beyond the President’s constitutional and statutory power and, thus, are not legal.

With this in mind, rather than allow our nation to regress towards its polluting past or face “an environmental death sentence,” as Eva mentioned, our lawsuit will ask the court to declare each of these executive orders unconstitutional and halt the various actions already being taken by governmental agencies to implement these orders.

It goes without saying that suing a sitting President and your federal government is no small thing. It’s also incredibly sad that my young friends and I feel forced to fight this battle, to fight those misguided, morally bankrupt adults who would rather place their polluted politics and antiquated ideals ahead of our environment, sustainable solutions, and the well-being of future generations. Alas, that is very much our reality in 2025.

The good news, and it is excellent news indeed, is that my young friends and I are devoted and determined to defeat this President and his Administration.

No matter how powerful the opposition or how daunting the path, we believe – as every generation must – that justice will prevail. Because it has to, the stakes are too high.

This is our moment to fight, not out of choice, but necessity.

For what is right.

For what is legal.

For what is just.

We fight because we must. And we will not stop.

To learn more about our new landmark constitutional lawsuit, please visit www.ourchildrenstrust.org/lighthiser-v-trump or consider the following recent news articles: