Recent proposals for including avoided deforestation emissions in international climate policy regimes have focused primarily on national-level approaches to combat emissions leakage. These approaches will fall short unless a critical mass of countries participate in these efforts; otherwise emissions will merely shift from those countries controlling deforestation emissions to those who do not, says Brian C. Murray, director for economic analysis at the Nicholas Institute. In a new working paper, Murray examines leakage concepts and their economic roots; presents empirical evidence that estimates leakage magnitude for avoided deforestation policies; and discusses how policies can reduce leakage opportunities and deal with the leakage that remains in the system. "Policy development is moving ahead with the somewhat vague notion that leakage is problematic and needs to be addressed, but with a less than complete picture of why it occurs, how big a problem it might be, and what can be done to minimize its impact on the success of the policy," Murray says. "This paper attempts to shed light on these issues." A full copy of the paper is online here. 

Institute Director Tim Profeta recently guest-blogged about prospects for climate change legislation in the next Congress. Profeta wrote his analysis for the popular environmental blog, "The Green Grok," hosted by Nicholas School Dean Bill Chameides. In his post, Profeta offered his take on why the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner proposal fell short of the 60 votes needed in the U.S. Senate, and what is needed to secure effective climate legislation in the coming Congressional cycle. The Nicholas Institute, he says, will continue to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to address key concerns, such as the cost of the proposed program, the loss of competitiveness to China, and the right of state governments to retain authority to address global warming. To read Profeta's full post, go to http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/nicholas/insider/thegreengrok/climatebill2008. 

Senior associate Eric Roston's new book, "The Carbon Age," is winning praise for its thought-provoking examination of the role carbon has played throughout history, both as a building block of life and, now, as one of the greatest threats to it. On July 29, Roston was a guest on Comedy Central's wildly popular show, "The Colbert Report." And in a July 27 review, Time magazine called his book "engaging" and said, "Roston makes clear in the book's powerful conclusion the dire fate that awaits the Earth if we can't kick our carbon habit." To read the full Time write-up, go to http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1826813,00.html. 

The Nicholas Institute helped sponsor the 2008 UCOWR/NIWR annual conference, "International Water Resources: Challenges for the 21st Century & Water Resources Education," July 22-24 at Duke. The conference brought together more than 150 of the world's top experts to discuss some of the most critical issues in environmental management today, including new strategies for managing water resources in developing countries and resolving conflicts over trans-boundary water rights and use.