Climate change is among the greatest collective action challenges in history, requiring solutions that meet the scale and urgency of the problem. Yet progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has stalled in the United States in recent years.

On Thursday, Tim Profeta, director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, will meet with Congressional leaders to outline a potential path for overcoming the national political stalemate on the issue and achieving "fast and significant climate action." 

The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program in partnership with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University are pleased to announce the release of the summary report from the 2019 Aspen-Nicholas Water Forum: Ensuring Water Quality: Innovating on the Clean Water & Safe Drinking Water Acts for the 21st Century.

A dozen student teams came to Duke University on Nov. 5 for the finals of the Energy in Emerging Markets Case Competition to pitch solutions to one of the biggest energy challenges faced in Nigeria—poor reliability in urban areas. Now in its seventh year, the competition is one of the signature events of Energy Week at Duke.

For a couple of hours on a September evening, the Berntsen Classroom at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business sounded more like a trading floor.

Teams of student investors strategized over whether to buy or sell on the market. In a few cases, they negotiated directly with each other, going back and forth over the right price.

The 50 Duke students in the room weren’t trading stocks, though. They were getting their first exposure to a carbon market.

With a Democratic Legislature to back him, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) could have a more bullish climate agenda, said Kate Konschnik, director of the Climate and Energy Program at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions is giving Duke University students a workout—for their environmental policy knowledge.

More than 40 students crammed into the fifth-floor boardroom of Grainger Hall on a Friday afternoon to get answers to their questions about the inner workings of Congress. The session was the first in a series of Policy Boot Camps that will feature Nicholas Institute professionals sharing their expertise engaging directly with decision-making institutions. 

Push-ups are being replaced by policy at the Nicholas Institute’s boot camps. 

Aimed at increasing student fluency in engaging with policy making institutions, the boot camps will draw from the experience of four policy experts and cover ways to engage with Congress, federal agencies and international institutions, reports The Chronicle.

Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, kicked off the first boot camp Oct. 25 to focus on the workings of Congress.

Programs that use creative pathways to fund and enlist farmers in agricultural conservation are the subject of a new report aimed at calling attention to the various ways states are innovating so that others can follow suit.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's decision to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is significant because it marks the largest expansion since the inception of the decade-old carbon market, which would now include all of the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast, reports NJ Spotlight. “As one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the country, Pennsylvania’s action will have a real impact on the fight against climate change," said Tim Profeta.

Pennsylvania's participation would expand the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative at a time when the Trump administration has reversed actions to curb emissions, reports StateImpact Pennsylvania. “This is a game changer, for a top energy producer like Pennsylvania to take this big step toward a cleaner future,” said Kate Konschnik.