Environmental Regulation

commentary

Why Not Space Mirrors?

Giant space mirrors can reflect solar radiation away from Earth, potentially helping to address the effects of climate change. But decisionmakers need more information about this technology to determine if it's a viable option.

Emmi Yonekura

commentary

How Could the United States Incentivize Investors to Decarbonize the Economy?

While mandatory climate-related disclosure may improve information and decisionmaking for investors, it alone is unlikely to accelerate investment in decarbonization at the rate needed. To motivate private investment in climate mitigation, policymakers could explore additional policies.

Ismael Arciniegas Rueda, Nihar Chhatiawala, et al.

commentary

How We Might Better Live with Oil in California

As California grapples with the question of balancing environmental stewardship with the recent renewed focus on “local oil,” lawmakers could look to local communities for the best answers to avoid future petro-disasters.

Jalal Awan, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg

essay

Manipulating the Climate: What Are the Geopolitical Risks?

Geoengineering technologies that could block the sun's rays or siphon huge amounts of carbon from the air are not that far out of reach. Yet the international community has not established the kinds of guardrails you might expect for potentially world-changing technologies.

commentary

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?

Liam Regan, Benjamin Lee Preston @bl_preston

commentary

Arming the Department of Defense's Environmental Liabilities Program

A new U.S. emphasis on sustainable environmental conditions is emerging just as budget pressures are increasing. The DoD could use this as an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to addressing its environmental liabilities.

Christy Foran, R. J. Briggs, et al.

commentary

California Needs a More Flexible Approach to Sea Level Rise Planning

Rising seas create significant risk to the health, safety, and economic vitality of California's coast communities, and we must prepare. A contingency-planning approach would provide flexible action over time and would build capacity that California and the nation need to respond to the many other serious and growing climate-related risks.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, David Behar

commentary

Local Communities Need a Voice in How to 'Build Back Better'

Long before it was popularized and made its way into political slogans and economic recovery battle cries, the phrase “building back better” was a central tenet of disaster recovery and community resilience. How should community voices be incorporated into “building back better” processes?

Max Izenberg, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg

commentary

Ammonia – Why the Big Stink?

Ammonia pollution harms human health and reduces the richness and diversity of the environment. As new policy frameworks are implemented in the UK, there is an opportunity to support farmers to make the changes necessary to reduce ammonia pollution.

Sarah Giles, Hadeel Tabaqchali, et al.

commentary

Suggestions to Help EPA Successfully Implement Retrospective Reviews

The EPA's interest in including a systematic retrospective review element in new regulation has the potential to provide a transparent and well-structured method for assessing which decisions worked well and which didn't. If successful, it could serve as a role model for other regulatory agencies.

Benjamin M. Miller

commentary

Impact on the Environment from President Trump's First 100 Days

President Trump's actions have not yet resulted in demonstrable change in environmental conditions or funding. But the groundwork is being laid to unwind major regulations and diminish staff at the EPA and other federal agencies with climate-related research in their portfolios.

Debra Knopman

commentary

With Trump in the White House, States Could Step Up on Climate Change

The new administration has expressed skepticism about climate change. But states may choose to pursue their own climate change initiatives.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Debra Knopman

commentary

China Has Done More About Pollution Than You Think (But It Must Do More)

It is not obvious from recent headlines, but China's central and local governments have done more to curb the nation's air pollution over the past two years than casual observers may realize.

Zhimin Mao

commentary

Paris Gets the (Decision) Science Right

The framework for the Paris negotiations is in sync with what science tells us about how to make effective public policy decisions. This alone makes them historic and may provide a model for both local and global action on more than climate alone.

Steven W. Popper

commentary

COP21: Ambition and Momentum

Negotiators in Paris achieved a historic breakthrough by adopting a fundamentally different, and likely more effective, institutional framework to address climate change. It builds on two concepts missing from past attempts to forge a global treaty: voluntary participation and adaptive policymaking.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Debra Knopman, et al.

commentary

COP 21 Not a Silver Bullet on Climate Change

The Paris climate conference cannot provide the engine that will drive a solution to the world's climate change challenge. Rather, it can best serve as a mediator that will help guide and structure the swirling, bottom-up process of radical change that is the best hope of preserving Earth's climate.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert

commentary

How to Overcome the Risks of Artificial Intelligence

The warnings and promises of artificial intelligence aren't new, but advances in technology make them more pressing.

Andrew J. Lohn, Andrew Parasiliti, et al.

commentary

Adapting to a Hotter World

Because climate change is largely irreversible, mitigation alone won't solve the problem. While mitigation will prevent even greater, future climatic changes, adaptation — efforts to adjust to climate change's effects — will prepare the world for a new set of living conditions, whatever they may be.

Evan D. Peet @evandpeet, Jaime Madrigano @JMadrigano

commentary

China at Home: Marrying Prosperity and Well-Being

As China strives to sustain its upward economic trajectory, it must also address its domestic problems—such as its air pollution and the challenges presented by its aging population—if its people are to share fully in the rewards of economic development and expansion.

Michael D. Rich @michaeldrich

commentary

Climate Targets: Values and Uncertainty

Policymakers know that the risks associated with climate change mean they need to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. But uncertainty surrounding the likelihood of different scenarios makes choosing specific policies difficult.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert

commentary

Health Benefits of Addressing Climate Change

Opponents of action to mitigate climate change often suggest that regulation could have a negative impact on jobs, but stakeholders need to consider benefits, too. For instance, lower emissions could produce savings in the form of lower health care costs, reductions in premature death, and greater well-being.

Ramya Chari, Jeffery B. Greenblatt, et al.

commentary

China Can Fix Its Severe Pollution Problem

China's economic transformation over the last three decades has produced potentially deadly air pollution its people inhale every day. But an investment of $215 billion annually could substantially reduce pollution, lessen its drag on productivity, spare the lungs of countless people, and save lives.

Keith Crane

commentary

New Coal Plant Rules Need Sustained Support to Succeed

Stopping climate change will require the United States and the rest of the world to virtually eliminate emissions over the course of the 21st century. Getting anywhere close to zero emissions demands sustained political and public support, driven by an energy production sector given enough incentives to make carbon reduction succeed.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Steven W. Popper

blog

What Mobility Might Look Like in the U.S. in 2030

Mobility — the ability to travel from one location to another — may look very different in the United States in the year 2030. Three key drivers differentiate possible scenarios: the price of oil, the development of environmental regulations, and the amount of highway revenues and expenditures.

commentary

The Environmental Costs of Emissions from Shale Gas Extraction

Further study, including primary data collection in regions where extraction is occurring, will be important to track the magnitude of emissions and to insure that the DEP's permit requirements are adequate to protect human health and the environment, writes Aimee Curtright.

Aimee E. Curtright @ACurtright

commentary

Global Methane Initiative: Converting Harmful Emissions to Usable Energy

Carbon dioxide has garnered the most attention in the climate change debate because it accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. But there is good reason to worry about methane, say Nicholas Burger and Noreen Clancy.

Nicholas E. Burger, Noreen Clancy

commentary

Green But Unsafe

Published commentary by RAND staff: Green But Unsafe, in Wall Street Journal, Europe Edition.

John D. Graham