The Nature Activation Hub brings together tools, guidance and resources to help decision-makers and practitioners integrate nature's benefits into decision-making. The hub builds on the Nicholas Institute’s two decades of actionable research and purposeful partnerships focused on nature-based solutions, ecosystem services and natural and working lands.

A new paper co-authored by Jin Bai, research associate at the Nicholas Institute, proposes a framework for urban ecologists to investigate the causes behind disparities in biodiversity between affluent and less wealthy neighborhoods. “Seeing the pattern of inequality is just the first step,” Bai told the Southeast Climate Adaptation Center. “Truly understanding the major factors that are driving those patterns is where we can address those gaps on a policy level.”

Nicholas Institute experts Martin Doyle, Lydia Olander and Tim Profeta recently served one- or two-year terms with federal entities. They discuss their temporary assignments—and what they brought back to Duke.

As director of nature-based resilience at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Lydia Olander worked for two years to connect efforts to protect U.S. lands and waters with emerging climate resilience priorities. Part of a series focusing on Nicholas Institute experts who have recently taken on temporary assignments within federal entities.

Climate Week NYC 2024, held Sept. 22-29, gathered hundreds of business and political leaders across the globe to address the need for climate action. Among the distinguished voices included Duke University, whose lineup of climate experts shared their insights and research at several key events as part of Duke's Climate Commitment. A photo essay from Duke Today showcased the involvement of Duke scholars, including several from the Nicholas Institute.

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.

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.

Understanding effectiveness of nature-based solutions projects will be key for scaling up implementation. In a LinkedIn article, Nicholas Institute experts Katie Warnell and Lydia Olander discuss the findings of their new analysis of 27 public nature-based solutions databases and identify several ways to improve how data are collected and shared.

The Atlantic Conservation Coalition—comprised of four mid-Atlantic states, The Nature Conservancy and Duke University—received a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a variety of nature-based projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Duke experts will lead reporting on the progress of the 21 projects, which will conserve or restore more than 200,000 acres of coastal habitats, forests and farmland in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

Are you a Duke University alum with plans (or potential plans) to attend Climate Week NYC (September 22-29) or the UNFCCC’s Conference of Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan (November 11-22)? Duke University experts will again take part in these important convenings alongside climate thought leaders and decision-makers from across the world—and we are eager to connect with Duke alumni who will also be joining.