Leehi Yona

Leehi Yona is Assistant Professor of Law and the Gearns & Russo Faculty Fellow of Environmental Law at Cornell Law School, specializing in environmental and climate change law. Her research focuses on legal frameworks for greenhouse gas accounting, climate justice, and regulatory strategies for transformative environmental governance.

Professor Yona’s research examines interdisciplinary approaches to greenhouse gas accounting, addressing the challenges and gaps in current climate laws and policies and exploring ways to improve them. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the UCLA Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, Nature, Nature Sustainability, and the Journal of Environmental Science and Policy.

In addition to her academic achievements, Yona has been an influential voice in public discourse on climate issues, contributing over one hundred opinion pieces to prominent publications such as The Los Angeles Times, Science, and The Nation. Her insights have been featured in major news outlets, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and NBC News.

Yona holds an A.B. in Environmental Studies and Biological Sciences from Dartmouth College, a Master of Environmental Science from Yale University, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, where she was a Knight-Hennessy Scholar.