climate research

The Philanthropy Gap

Spending relating to climate change is far too low given the urgency of the situation.

Larry Kramer, who heads the Hewlett Foundation, pointed out in a speech five years ago that climate change accounted for less than 2% of foundation spending. He called upon “anyone who cares about our children’s and grandchildren’s futures to step forward.” The situation has gotten only a bit better since 2017. In 2020, according to a McKinsey …

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Should There Be a ‘Non-Use’ Agreement on Solar Geoengineering?

Volcanic eruption (Sarychev Peak)

Why I signed the call for a non-use agreement, and what that might mean for research.

Although I’m a newbie at the Emmett Institute, I have been working on geoengineering for a decade now. I have heard countless arguments over whether and how solar geoengineering could be useful in the struggle to manage climate change. I have seen deeply misleading claims by both its supporters and detractors, many trying to coopt …

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Trump’s Public Statements Aren’t Relevant in Assessing His Likely Climate Policy

The Media Need to Take Trump’s Advisors, and Their Policy Proposals, More Seriously Than They Take Trump’s Off-the-Cuff Comments

The media need to get their act together when they report and editorialize about President-elect Donald Trump’s public statements.  Chief among many failures in reporting on the campaign was the tendency of major newspapers and television outlets to focus on candidates’ rhetoric, symbolism, and character, to the virtual exclusion of governance and policy. This contributed …

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Muller Serves Up a Koch Zero, No Ice.

Physicist Richard Muller reports the results of his research, which was funded by Charles Koch Charitable Foundation.  The results were probably not what Koch was hoping for: “CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last …

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Hot Off the Presses

So to speak.  Our friend and colleague Matt Kahn’s new book, Climatolopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future, has just been published.  Matt is a real rarity among economists in two ways: 1)  He writes in English; and 2) He does not think that economics can explain everything and anything, and has …

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Climate and Energy Research @ Berkeley

Berkeley, like UCLA, is on the forefront of research on climate change and energy policy.  There’s a lot going on here — ranging from breakthroughs in climate modeling to new energy technologies to improved analysis of economic impacts.  It’s hard, even for those of us on the campus, to keep track of all of these …

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A Glimpse Inside the Stimulus Bill

Although the stimuls bill passed last week, there still doesn’t seem to be a lot of detailed information about its exact provisions.   It does appear, however, that the final legislation has considerable benefits for clean energy, as CNN details

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