Richard Horsch

Richard Horsch is a Retired Partner with the international law firm of White & Case LLP, where he has concentrated his practice on domestic and international environmental law and climate change matters. He has addressed environmental issues arising in numerous countries, and has advised clients on international treaties, multilateral development bank standards (e.g., World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, IFC), and evolving international environmental and sustainable development standards and norms, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Equator Principles. He served as legal advisor to a developing country in its establishment and start-up of a Designated National Authority to review and approve proposed projects developed under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, and to a group of developing nations in the negotiation of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. 

Mr. Horsch was previously a coordinator with, and is currently an advisor to, the Model Climate Laws Initiative -- an undertaking on behalf of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and Environmental Advocates of New York to draft model legislation at the federal, state, and local levels to mitigate climate change. He is Director Emeritus of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a non-profit public interest law organization. He is on the Board of Advisors to New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity.  Mr. Horsch is an Instructor at Columbia University’s Master’s Program in Sustainability Management, a joint Program of the Columbia Climate School and the School of Professional Studies.