During the launch of The Duke Campaign, a session featuring Nicholas Institute experts Brian Murray and Jackson Ewing and Duke students highlighted how the university and stakeholders are collaborating on climate finance and policy to achieve global energy goals and create a more equitable and sustainable world. “This is an interdisciplinary set of challenges, and we attempt to match them to Duke’s interdisciplinary resources,” Ewing said.

While it remains to be seen how much federal clean energy and climate funding the Trump administration can roll back, the effort is already having market effects, Nicholas Institute expert Jackson Ewing told Time. “There's going to be more reticence to invest in some of these energy transition and climate focused sectors, because the political environment is clearly less appealing for those investments now compared to what it was a year ago or six months ago during the Biden administration,” Ewing said.

U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will not only reduce its influence in international climate negotiations, but will also “trickle down” closer to home, Nicholas Institute expert Jackson Ewing told the Winston-Salem Journal. If the Trump administration begins deprioritizing renewable energy and different investments designed to address climate change, it "could undermine some of the investments that have been made in North Carolina under the previous administration through the Inflation Reduction Act,” he said. 

“I don't think that there is anything in these executive orders or anything in the realm of plausible action that the federal government could take that could prevent Duke from reaching its Climate Commitment and its decarbonization targets," Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute, told The Chronicle. "Duke has the autonomy [and] the mandate to ensure that those targets are met."

President Trump wants to redirect the federal government away from former President Joe Biden's climate agenda and toward an even deeper embrace of fossil fuels. Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute, told NPR's All Things Considered that there are limits on the federal government that could hinder Trump, including state, local, and private sector climate action and legal challenges to his executive orders.

China is planning to extend its national emissions trading system to put a price on carbon emissions from its cement, steel and aluminum sectors. In principle, the move could help European importers who buy products from China reduce European Union climate tariffs set to take effect in 2026. But Nicholas Institute expert Jackson Ewing told Der Tagesspiegel that the accounting involved would be complex and likely not result in China matching the EU's carbon price. 

President Donald Trump issued a broad slew of energy policies and efforts to roll back environmental protections on his first day in office. Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute, told The Hill that Trump’s declaration of a “national energy emergency” could be among the most impactful policies because it unlocks more rapid leasing, siting and permitting for oil and gas production. 

World leaders gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November for the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP29—and Duke University experts and students were on the scene.

A new analysis by Energy Pathways USA estimates how electricity demand may change in the next decade and the potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Modeled scenarios focused on the potential reversal of an EPA rule limiting emissions from power plants and how quickly renewable resources can be connected to the power grid.

Several Duke experts are attending COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, to share insights, advance collaborative initiatives and network. They are accompanied by 17 students who are getting an up-close view of how international climate policy moves forward.