Ridgeline Center for Law and Policy was founded in 2017 as the Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy (CAELP). Since the beginning, the organization has worked to develop effective climate policies and defend those policies in court. Today, climate advocacy requires protecting existing federal and state authorities, defending core rule-of-law principles that are necessary for effective policy implementation, and rebuilding the government capacity and statutory authority required for ambitious solutions to the climate crisis.

Ridgeline Center pursues these goals by targeting actions that can act as a force multiplier to increase collective impact. Ridgeline Center is now working to establish a durable legal and policy framework that ensures federal and state governments can directly address climate change, public health needs, and other complex social and economic challenges. We develop new legal responses, share strategies with states and NGOs, increase coordination across organizations focusing on rule-of-law litigation, directly intervene in cases that threaten foundational principles of constitutional and administrative law, and engage in building the next climate policy agenda ahead of the 2028 election cycle.