We are pleased to announce that Peter Colohan will be the first Executive Director to lead the Internet of Water, working to realize the vision of connecting water data for sustainability. Peter comes to us from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) where he served as the Director of Service Innovation and Partnership at the Office of Water Prediction.
Governor Roy Cooper recently signed an executive order on climate change, setting goals for the state's economy to reduce greenhouse emissions 40 percent from earlier levels by 2025.
“These goals by themselves do not really have much effect,” wrote Billy Pizer, faculty fellow in the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy, in an article appearing in the Duke Chronicle. "Any real action will require legislation."
When it comes to water, critical decisions are made every day, regardless of data availability. But what if we could harness more data to make better-informed decisions? The Internet of Water seeks to fundamentally change how we manage water by improving access to more water data for real-time decision-making. The project, undertaken by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, has been awarded $2 million by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
"[A] Republican environmentalist, historically, is not an endangered species or an oxymoron," writes William K. Reilly, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1989-1993), and Chair of the Nicholas Institute's Board of Advisors, in an analysis published in Scientific American.
In September, the Bridge Collaborative and the United Nations Development Programme brought together more than 30 global leaders and experts in New York City to discuss the question: what steps can be taken to accelerate integrated actions for health and environment? Together, the group identified three steps for action, which will be critical to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Several Republican candidates in North Carolina are embracing climate change, saying that humans are playing a role. Congressmen Ted Budd and George Holding made the comments during debates on Spectrum News.
Carbon emissions tied to U.S. electricity generation have dropped 28 percent since 2005 to a total of 1,744 million metric tons last year — the lowest since 1987 — according to data the U.S. Energy Information Administration posted publicly, reports Greenwire. The nation's power sector continues to march toward meeting and surpassing the goals of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which the Trump administration has moved to water down.
Gov. Roy Cooper has signed an executive order that directs the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2025. It's a move that some other state and local governments have taken since President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. Jennifer Weiss, a senior policy associate with the Climate and Energy Program at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions told NPR that it "is a realistic goal, but I think it's going to take a lot of work by multiple parties." The order lays out several different ways to reduce greenhouse gases, and it creates a climate change council that is supposed to get input from a wide range of sources like utilities, local governments and business owners.
Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Monday calling on North Carolina to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in the next seven years. The executive order calls for getting at least 80,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road, improving the efficiency of state buildings so they cut their energy use by 40 percent and working to expand North Carolina's clean energy industries. The 40 percent target is based on the state's 2005 emission levels, and Tim Profeta, director of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions tells WRAL that it is an ambitious goal, noting that it's more than any other state in the Southeast.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday announced an executive order aimed at addressing climate change and advancing the clean energy economy in the state.