Benjamin Lee Preston

Achieving Decarbonization and Energy Equity Through Reconciliation

The past two years have witnessed increasingly vocal calls for rapid decarbonization of the global economy through a clean energy transition. How can Congress ensure that new costs associated with a clean energy transition do not fall disproportionately on lower-income ratepayers?

Mapping Environmental Racism: Q&A with Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston

Environmental policy experts Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston are leading an effort to highlight how discriminatory policies have shaped environmental health disparities. Their goal: create an interactive map of the United States to motivate environmental policy that advances antiracism.

New Thinking to Translate Infrastructure Dollars into Resilience

Infrastructure investments the United States makes today to recover from the pandemic can help boost resilience for the future. We will need to think beyond what we've done in the past to ensure that these investments can continue to protect the nation from shifting threats in the future.

The Science of Climate Policy: Q&A with Benjamin Preston

Benjamin Preston, a senior policy researcher and director of RAND's Community Health and Environmental Policy Program, specializes in climate risk and adaptation, disaster recovery, and resilience. In this Q&A, he discusses common misperceptions about climate change and how to decarbonize the U.S. economy.

Triaging Climate Change

There are many opportunities to manage climate risk around the world, but not everything can be saved. Delaying triage of climate damages could leave societies making ad hoc decisions instead of focusing on protecting the things they value most.

Environmental Impact Bonds May Not Bear Fruit for Green Investors

Investors may be willing to accept a lower return for socially responsible investments. But environmental impact bonds may not be the best way to leverage these investment possibilities.

When It Comes to Climate, Look for Vulnerabilities in Policy, Not Science

Federal policymakers have picked up on the concept of red teaming — actively seeking out one's own vulnerabilities. While red teaming may not make sense for climate science, it does offer great benefits when weighing climate policy options.

The Big Bet: Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement

America's formal withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement could have far-reaching consequences for U.S. global leadership on many issues, not just on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Journal Article

The Road to Justice40: Organizer and Policymaker Perspectives on the Historical Roots of and Solutions for Environmental Justice Inequities in U.S. Cities

This study characterizes the perceptions of organizers and policymakers regarding how communities experience the causes of environmental injustices in U.S. cities, the characteristics of policies intended to address these injustices, and lessons learned for equitably engaging communities.

Report

A Risk Assessment of National Critical Functions During COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities

This report presents a framework for assessing risk that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses to the National Critical Functions, describes challenges in implementing the framework, and provides recommendations for improving it.

Tool

Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments

Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).

Commentary

Incentivizing Solar: Catalyzing Solar Energy Technology Adoption to Address the Challenge of Climate Change

The authors provide an overview of the U.S. solar energy market and identify federal incentives that can help decarbonize the U.S. economy. They also explore solar reliability, job benefits, and availability to disadvantaged communities.

Commentary

Climate Control: International Legal Mechanisms for Managing the Geopolitical Risks of Geoengineering

The authors review the state of geoengineering technologies—large-scale manipulation of environmental processes to address climate change—and their associated geopolitical risks, while considering international governance options.

Journal Article

The Societal Benefits of Vehicle Connectivity

This scenario analysis suggests that actions focused on enhancing equity in any push towards vehicle connectivity represent a low-regrets option for public, private, and civil society actors.

Journal Article

Infrastructure Resilience to Navigate Increasingly Uncertain and Complex Conditions in the Anthropocene

Resilience theory can help infrastructure managers navigate increasing complexity of the systems and environments in which they operate.

Report

Recovery in the U.S. Virgin Islands: Progress, Challenges, and Options for the Future

This report provides analysis to help the U.S. Virgin Islands accelerate recovery from the 2017 hurricanes. It describes goals, accomplishments, challenges, and steps needed to improve recovery capacities, infrastructure, the economy, and services.

Report

Beyond Recovery: Transforming Puerto Rico's Water Sector in the Wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria

The recovery plan for the water sector in Puerto Rico involves not only repairing hurricane-damaged water infrastructure and systems but also fixing the significant legacy challenges in the sector's infrastructure, operations, and governance.

Journal Article

The Social Structure of Climate Change Research and Practitioner Engagement: Evidence from California

This study thus examines the perspectives and experiences of researchers regarding practitioner engagement, drawing from an original survey of California's climate research community and supplemental interviews.

Journal Article

Economic Losses from Extreme Weather in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region: Spatially Differential Contributions of Climate Hazard and Socioeconomic Exposure and Vulnerability

A novel socio-climate hazard typology (SCT) was developed that integrates locally defined climate hazard and socioeconomic exposure and social vulnerability typologies. We regressed the SCT types and their constituent hazard and socioeconomic components against the cumulative economic loss from extreme weather events in order to attribute economic losses to different interactions among climate hazards, socioeconomic exposure, and vulnerability.

Journal Article

Applying the Knowledge Product Evaluation (KnoPE) Framework to Two Urban Resilience Cases in the United States

This paper describes the development and testing of the Knowledge Product Evaluation (KnoPE) framework,which represents a structured approach to evaluating the utility of decision-support tools for urban resilience.

Journal Article

Achievements and Needs for the Climate Change Scenario Framework

Over the past ten years, the climate change research community has developed a scenario framework combining alternative futures of climate and society to facilitate integrated research and consistent assessment to inform policy. Here we assess how well this framework is working and what challenges it faces.

Journal Article

Ensemble-Based Flood Vulnerability Assessment for Probable Maximum Flood in a Changing Environment

A high-resolution hydro-meteorologic model was used to develop probabilistic flood maps representing the response of indices of rainfall extremes, probable maximum precipitation (PMP) and probable maximum flood (PMF), to climate change.

Journal Article

Climate Vulnerability Mapping: A Systematic Review and Future Prospects

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of 84 studies that map social vulnerability to climate impacts in order to identify common approaches to mapping, evaluate their strengths and limitations, and offer recommendations and future directions for the field.

Journal Article

Pathways to 2050: Alternative Scenarios for Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy

This scenario exercise draws on the insights of more than 20 leading companies to advance understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with decarbonizing the United States by mid-century in order to reduce the risks of climate change.

Journal Article

Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Policy

This topical and engaging Research Handbook illustrates the variety of research approaches in the field of climate change adaptation policy in order to provide a guide to its social and institutional complexity.

Journal Article

Shift in Seasonal Climate Patterns Likely to Impact Residential Energy Consumption in the United States

This paper presents an ensemble of climate simulations and empirical relationships between weather and household energy consumption to provide detailed estimates for potential climate-driven changes in the United States residential energy demand.

Report

Updating the Costs of Compliance for California's Hospital Seismic Safety Standards

California Senate Bill 1953 requires structural and nonstructural upgrades to hospital buildings to enhance resilience to seismic events. This report estimates the costs to hospitals of compliance, with a focus on the 2030 deadline.

Journal Article

Identifying Climate Service Production Constraints to Adaptation Decision-Making in Sweden

This paper draws on semi-structured interviews across climate service production environments in Sweden and finds that climate service producers experience multiple constraints related to the production and dissemination of actionable information.

Journal Article

Dynamic Adaptive Pathways in Downscaled Climate Change Scenarios

Dynamic adaptive pathways are introduced as useful tools to draw out which elements of a potentially infinite scenario space connect with decision-relevant aspects of particular climate-related and non-climate-related risks and response options.

Journal Article

Sensitivity of Probable Maximum Flood in a Changing Environment

This study uses integrated hydrometeorological simulations over the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin in the southeastern United States to understand the impact of climate change on probable maximum precipitation.

Journal Article

The Tradeoff Between Water and Carbon Footprints of Barnett Shale Gas

This study takes an in-depth look at the energy water nexus in the context of hydraulic fracturing in a drought prone and natural gas rich region of Texas.