Green banks and community lenders are critical partners who can adapt well-known financing approaches to provide climate and community benefits from nature-based projects in markets that mainstream finance often does not reach. In a LinkedIn article, Nicholas Institute experts Sara Mason and Lydia Olander offer examples of innovative financing for nature-based solutions from a series of case studies that they have gathered.

Two studies conducted by Duke University researchers have found substantial cost and time savings are possible with flexible “connect and manage” interconnection of utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage projects, reports PV Magazine. The lead researcher for both studies, Duke Ph.D. student Tyler Norris, reported the findings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in advance of a workshop next week. 

Duke University experts are partnering with colleagues at the University of Georgia and numerous other collaborators to develop the Center for Innovation in Risk-analysis for Climate Adaptation and Decision-making (CIRCAD). CIRCAD's new podcast, Circadian Wisdom, features conversations about positioning the insurance and reinsurance sectors to serve as champions in the fight for climate resilience.

Small towns at risk from climate change need better data to become more resilient. Duke Today profiled a team of Duke students who spent 10 weeks this summer working with the Town of Creswell and the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency to understand the flood issues some state residents face. The project, led by Nicholas Institute experts Lydia Olander and Francis Bouchard, was part of the Climate+ summer research program.

Extreme heat contributed to more U.S. deaths in 2023 than any other year in the last two decades. Ashley Ward, director of Duke's Heat Policy Innovation Hub, says there is no standardized way to report these deaths. “There needs to be guidance and standards developed for how we determine heat is a contributor,” she told USA Today.

The 2024 Duke Alumni Engagement and Development Impact Report highlights the launch of "Cooling Communities: Strategic Partnerships for Energy Equity in the Carolinas." This new project is led by experts at the Nicholas Institute and Duke Divinity School, and nonprofit groups N.C. Interfaith Power & Light, N.C. Council of Churches, and S.C. Interfaith Power & Light, alongside collaborators at Duke Energy.

Increasing temperatures, rising energy costs and systemic social disparity combine to put 16 percent of Americans in energy poverty. Ashley Ward, director of Duke's Heat Policy Innovation Hub, defined energy poverty for CBS News as "the layering of burdens without a means, at the individual level, to combat those burdens."

Increasing summer temperatures in North Carolina and around the world are a slow-moving disaster that may go unheeded until they culminate in a heat crisis. "You can't look out your window and say it's an extreme heat day like you can with a hurricane, tornado or bad storm," Jordan Clark, senior policy associate at Duke's Heat Policy Innovation Hub, told the Wilmington StarNews. "It's very subtle and somewhat invisible, but incredibly impactful."

Duke University experts are partnering with colleagues at the University of Georgia (UGA) and numerous other collaborators to develop the Center for Innovation in Risk-analysis for Climate Adaptation and Decision-making (CIRCAD). Their video series showcases CIRCAD experts discussing their views on how the initiative can develop community- and industry-accessible research and champion climate resilience.

As high temperature records are set and broken again, cities are looking into establishing renters’ rights to cooling equipment. The major challenge rental cooling standards proponents need to overcome, is the public perception that air conditioning is a luxury, not a necessity, Ashley Ward, director of Duke University’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub, told Smart Cities Dive. “What we’re learning is we have to develop policies specific to the issue of heat,” Ward said.