Growing demand for decision makers to better understand and manage human dependence on healthy ocean ecosystems and biodiversity will be highlighted at a conference at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3-4. The event will bring together more than three dozen experts, including the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions' Ocean and Coastal Policy Program Director Linwood Pendleton. Discussion will focus on the need for more effective maritime security cooperation, maritime spatial planning, ocean governance and jobs. Join the discussion today and tomorrow online. Follow the conference on Twitter with the hashtag #OceanEcon.

Brian Murray, director for economic analysis at the Nicholas Institute, was named to a committee to search for the next dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment. Current Dean William Chameides announced in August that he will step down at the end of the academic year after leading the school since 2007.  

Understanding of the potential complementarity of management practices that promote adaptation and those that promote mitigation is limited. So, too, is understanding of the basis to account for greenhouse gas emission reductions in the agricultural sector. A new article, co-authored by a Nicholas Institute researcher in the journal Global Change Biology, identifies steps and reviews emerging approaches to improve quantification of agricultural greenhouse gases. 

The Office of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced several appointments to boards and commissions, including that of a Nicholas Institute researcher to a two-year term on the state's Mining and Energy Commission. The commission has the authority to make determinations and issue orders pursuant to the Oil and Gas Conservation Act, regulate the spacing of wells and establish drilling units. 

Unprecedented uncertainty in the electricity sector makes it difficult to estimate the cost or likely range of costs for new capital investments. A new paper reviews metrics that utilities and utility regulators can use to evaluate investment options. It details methods to incorporate a realistic range of cost estimates and to assess the risk that different options create for customers in a least-cost planning framework.  

As with many topics in business, policy, and industry, discussion about America's energy future can often be fractious and polarized, consequently leading nowhere. A documentary filmmaker turned to three Duke University experts to help further his mission of changing the tone, and perhaps the outcome, of the energy debate.