N-EWN's goal for this symposium is to provide partners (including Duke University) with an opportunity to learn about the innovative work of each organization, create stronger connections between partners, and facilitate collaboration on new projects. Register by Feb. 1 for a discounted Early Bird registration fee ($250 for faculty, staff, and other non-students; $125 for students).

Public- and private-sector investors are seeking to advance sustainable, quality infrastructure to improve economic productivity, transition to a low-carbon economy, promote social wellbeing, and build climate resilience. Yet most new infrastructure isn’t fulfilling these goals. The disconnect often comes down to a lack of consensus on how to identify sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects and their benefits. Numerous global initiatives are competing to define these characteristics—leading to a confusing landscape for financiers and developers alike. During this panel discussion, experts will examine the merits, challenges, and opportunities related to different approaches to spur investment and construction of sustainable, quality infrastructure. This event is part of Sustainable Infrastructure: A Duke Climate Collaboration Symposium.

The second installment in the Duke Climate Collaboration Symposia series will include a March 20 panel discussion at Duke in DC in Washington, DC (also available via livestream) and a March 21 panel discussion and March 22 workshop at Duke University in Durham, NC.

Join us virtually on June 20 live from The Rainbow Room in New York City, where Deloitte, Economist Impact, and Duke University will be sharing findings from Infrastructure for Good, a groundbreaking research initiative that examines infrastructure ecosystems in 30 countries. Featured speakers include Jerome Lynch (Vinik Dean of Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering) and Elizabeth Losos (Executive in Residence, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability).

Virtually attend this conference (7-8:30 a.m. ET) that will explore innovative approaches to build capacity for sustainable infrastructure. Nicholas Institute experts Elizabeth Losos and Sara Mason, will present the Infrastructure Sustainability LEarning (ISLE) model as a capacity building approach for sustainable infrastructure.

In November, the Biden-Harris administration released a roadmap for unlocking the potential of nature-based solutions in the United States. In the fourth session of the Nature-Based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series, hear from two authors of the roadmap, as well as federal agency representatives.

US federal agencies use cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to make decisions about the types of infrastructure projects to implement. In the third session of the Nature-Based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series, experts working with the federal government discuss how these policies might be updated to enable more nature-based solutions projects.

One of the major hurdles keeping NbS projects from scaling up is finding ways to pay for them. This session, the second of the Nature-based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series, highlights insights about various mechanisms that can be used to pay for NbS, including state and federal policies and programs, as well as finance tools.

Session one of the Nature-based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series focuses on assessing the costs and benefits of NbS. How can we account for all the benefits NbS provide? How do they compare to more traditional (gray infrastructure) solutions? What is the return on investment for NbS?

The recently launched Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) promised to deliver game-changing projects to close the infrastructure gap in developing countries, strengthen the global economy and supply chains, and advance U.S. national security. Together with G7 partners, the U.S. will mobilize $600 billion by 2027 in global infrastructure investments. This will only be the beginning as G7 countries will seek to mobilize additional capital from multilateral banks to sovereign wealth funds.
 

Countries need to move faster on a new wave of infrastructure that meets, and perhaps surpasses Paris Climate Commitments and Sustainable Development Goals. At this webinar, speakers will help bring into focus the increasingly busy landscape of global green infrastructure initiatives.

Register now to join a book discussion on Zoom with Scott M. Moore, author of China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology Are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future (Oxford University Press, 2022).

The infrastructure we build today will be with us for many decades to come, so it needs to be “future proofed” to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Bipartisan infrastructure legislation (such as the recently passed IIJA) authorizes a generational investment in new and upgraded transportation facilities – roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, and public transit. Many new transportation projects will be in coastal areas, home to almost forty percent of Americans. There is growing evidence that more severe storms and rising sea level pose a risk to transportation infrastructure in coastal areas.

This webinar will examine the steps that governments are and could be taking to make sure that new transportation investments are resilient to risks posed by coastal storm flooding and rising sea levels.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues (AAAS EPI Center), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water (EPA OW), and the White House invite you to join the next webinar in our series that highlights regional examples of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions.

In this final session of Sustainable Infrastructure: Putting Principle into Practice, we review and put into context all ten Sustainable Infrastructure Good Practice Principles. The session then focuses on gaining your feedback so that we can understand how to shape the future of this community of practice.

This webinar explores Principle #10: Evidence-Based Decision-Making. The technical presentation, “Exploring evidence-based decision-making for climate resilient infrastructure systems” is followed by a case presentation on “Urban strategies for climate resilience–innovative approaches from New York City and Rotterdam.”

The third seminar in the Gilman Climate Leaders Seminar Series will feature an engaged panel discussion among Junjie Zhang, Sustainability Chair for the Schwartzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University with faculty appointments at Duke and Duke Kunshan Universities; Fan Dai, Executive Director, California-China Climate Institute at University of California, Berkeley; and Jackson Ewing (moderator), Senior Fellow at the Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. The panel will explore China’s efforts to reach its carbon peaking (2030) and carbon-neutrality (2060) goals, U.S. climate efforts to drive economy-wide decarbonization, and the ways the two countries cooperate and compete on global climate change issues.

Elizabeth Losos, Senior Fellow, will moderate "Sustainable Infrastructure Standards - 'Building Back Better Together'?" as part of the Global Solutions Summit.