Climate Change
What Will 2025 Bring in Global Climate Finance?
Last year, international negotiations continued to disappoint on global climate policy, forests, and finance. This year, subnational governments must continue to lead.
As they have for many years, nations came together in 2024 at various climate-related events to push for a brighter future. From the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia in October 2024, followed immediately by COP29 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) …
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CONTINUE READINGTalking Climate Policy with an Energy Economist
An interview with leading energy expert Catherine Wolfram
Catherine Wolfram, a leading energy economist who has researched the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, shares her views of the impact of the IRA, its likely fate, and the energy policies of the incoming Trump Administration. Wolfram served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics at the US Treasury in 2021-2022
CONTINUE READINGWhat policies lead to greenhouse gas emissions declines?
A recent study emphasizes the role of policy mixes in driving short-term emissions reductions
In a series of posts (beginning here, and ending here) last month, I outlined an approach to climate policy that emphasizes the role of subsidies in building political support and technological progress for climate policy. In doing so, I drew heavily on existing political science research and case studies from North America and Europe. But …
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CONTINUE READINGTrading more LNG exports for more electricity transmission?
Recent Department of Energy report indicates that the trade may be worth it
In a series of recent posts (first post, second post, third post), I examined the permitting reform bill advanced by Senators Manchin and Barrasso in the last Congress. That permitting reform bill is now dead. But the reasons for doing a deal still remain. Decarbonizing the US economy requires a massive increase in renewable energy, …
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CONTINUE READINGTest Your Knowledge of Climate Law
How much do you really know about the law relating to climate change?
How much do you really know about climate law? Expert or novice, this quiz will test your knowledge and maybe help you fill in some gaps.
CONTINUE READINGThe Environmental Gifts of the Magi
Clean air. Clean water. We receive these public goods every day without payment, as gifts from everyone to all of us.
One of the Christmas classics is the Jimmy Stewart movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart’s character is feeling suicidal, until he learns how much he has unknowingly helped others and how grateful they are. It’s heartwarming if also very corny. There’s a flip side to that story: the need to remember how much others have contributed …
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CONTINUE READINGThere are Piles of Coal in America’s Christmas Stocking
Coal is piling up, unused, at powerplants across the country
Bad children, supposedly, will get only lumps of coal in their stockings. That could be taken as a metaphor for the anti-environmental programs coming down the line, but I have in mind something a bit less metaphorical. According to a recent report, coal-fired power plants have immense piles of coal – 138 million tons, equal …
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CONTINUE READINGLooking Ahead to the Second Trump Administration
Does the IRA have staying power?
This is the seventh in a series of posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The sixth post is here. The incoming Trump Administration has, of course, called for ending efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, …
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CONTINUE READINGBroadening the Scope of Climate Policy
How to expand climate policy to new places and new sectors
This is the sixth in a series of posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The political dynamics of decarbonization that I’ve sketched out are very specific to time, space, and economic sector. The policy approaches …
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CONTINUE READINGGood & Bad Environmental News From the U.S. Supreme Court
Escalating Legal Attacks on California’s Longstanding Clean Air Act “Waiver” Authority
This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued important orders in two closely-related environmental cases previously decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Last Friday the justices granted review in Diamond Alternative Energy v. Environmental Protection Agency, agreeing to decide whether fossil fuel manufacturers have legal standing to challenge an …
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