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Strategic Reserve Coupons: A New Idea for Coast Containment
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Policymakers looking to contain costs associated with a federal climate bill should consider distributing coupons to industrial firms that later can be used to buy allowances if compliance prices from an emissions cap-and-trade system get too high, according to a policy brief published this month by the Nicholas Institute. According to the brief, the use of strategic reserve coupons offers several advantages over the alternative approach of auctioning allowances. Rather than spreading valuable cost containment measures across the entire market, as a reserve auction would do, coupons can target those who need it the most. The coupon approach would provide greater price certainty for firms, which would be able to gain price certainty for their reserve allowances on their own schedule, rather than waiting for a quarterly auction. Institute staff members began rolling out the new cost-containment strategy to colleagues on Capitol Hill earlier this month. Tim Profeta, Brian C. Murray and Jon Anda of the Nicholas Institute, Peter Maniloff of the Nicholas School of the Environment, and Nathaniel O. Keohane of Environmental Defense Fund authored the brief.
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T-AGG Team to Address Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
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The Nicholas Institute has received a $628,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to establish the Technical Working Group for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG). The grant will fund a two-year initiative to conduct a transparent, scientifically based review of agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. For the most promising of these opportunities, the team will then develop the analytical background necessary to assess and initiate the development of high-integrity methodologies. The Institute will publish the team's findings in a series of technical reports with executive summaries for stakeholders and decision makers. "Our goal is to provide the scientific and analytical foundation needed for high-quality agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation strategies in the United States, and begin to assess the next steps for international agriculture as well," says Lydia Olander, senior associate director of ecosystem services at the Nicholas Institute. "This will be done with significant expert and practitioner input." Charles W. Rice, University Distinguished Professor of Soil Microbiology at Kansas State University, and Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change and director of the Center on Global Change at Duke University, will collaborate on the project.
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McCornick to Speak at WWF's Kathryn Fuller Symposium
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Director of Water Policy Peter McCornick will present an overview of his recent work on strategies for improved water management in the Ganges and Mekong river basins at the prestigious 2009 Science for Nature Symposium, Nov. 4, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The annual symposium is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund's Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Fund. This year's topic is "Securing Water for Nature and People in a Changing Climate." McCornick is one of 14 international experts invited to present. A working paper based on his group's work in the Ganges basin is posted on the Institute's Web site at the link listed below. To register for the webcast of the symposium, go to http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/fellowships/fuller/webcast.html.
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| New Report Asses Greenhouse Gas Reduction Options for Utah | |
A detailed new report from the Nicholas Institute is designed to help decision makers in Utah quantify effective strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their state. Completed at the request of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the report examines the avoided emissions potential from 16 strategies proposed by the state's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change. It projects a range of likely emissions reductions that could be achieved through policy options for agriculture and forestry, transportation and land use, energy supply, and the residential, commercial and industrial sectors of Utah's economy. "Our report does not advocate for any individual policy or approach. It gives decision makers in Utah an unbiased analysis of each option and combined options, so they can devise the climate plan that best meets their state's specific goals," says Etan Gumerman, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute. The report, which is now available online, was completed with support from a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with assistance from the Energy Foundation.
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Workshop Explores Carbon Market Design
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A market-based cap-and-trade system is at the heart of the major legislative proposals Congress is weighing now to address global climate change. On Oct. 16, the Nicholas Institute hosted a daylong workshop in Washington, D.C., to explore the design and regulation of a properly functioning national carbon market that will be critical to achieving this legislation's environmental goals. Financial experts, researchers and policy analysts from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, the office of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.), and the Nicholas Institute led sessions on a variety of hot-button topics, including carbon allowance auction design, financial accounting for carbon allowances, carbon market structure, financial market reform and implications for the carbon market, price containment mechanisms and their impacts on market behavior and the view from Capitol Hill. The workshop was part of the Nicholas Institute's ongoing Carbon Market Initiative, which receives support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The workshop agenda, overview, and presentation materials from some sessions are now available on the Institute's Web site.
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| Institute Takes Part in DELPF Symposium on Ecosystem Services | |
Two Institute senior staff members facilitated and helped coordinate panel discussions at the 2009 Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum (DELPF) Symposium on Oct. 23. The annual symposium, co-organized this year by the USDA's Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets, attracted top academics, practitioners, and policymakers from across the nation. This year's topic was "Next Generation Conservation: The Government's Role in Emerging Ecosystem Service Markets." Nicholas Institute Director Tim Profeta facilitated a panel discussion on standards development with speakers from the USDA, U.S. EPA, the office of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Oregon State University and the Voluntary Carbon Standard Association. Lydia Olander, senior associate director for ecosystem services, lead a discussion on the role of federal dollars with panelists from EKO Asset Management Partners, Solano Partners Inc., the World Resources Institute, the Pacific Forest Trust and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. A complete list of participants and topics is available on the DELPF Web site. Archived webcasts of the day's discussions also are available online.
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