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The Energy Data Analytics Lab is helping strengthen Climate TRACE, a non-profit coalition that provides the world’s largest inventory of greenhouse gas emissions.

The organizers of the Southeast Electric Transportation Regional Initiative (SETRI) April 2025 Meeting at Duke University (April 3, 2025) invite university students, researchers, and energy professionals to submit abstracts for a poster session. Submit poster abstracts (less than 300 words) by Thursday, February 27 at 4 p.m. Eastern.

“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.

Looking for a summer project? Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to apply for summer 2025 Climate+ research projects.

The Climate+ projects are part of the broader Data+ program and offered by the Nicholas Institute in partnership with the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke. All Plus Programs run 10 weeks over the summer and are composed of small project teams working on real world solutions using data science, programming, coding, and analysis. 

The Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub will spend the next two years developing an interactive, web-based tool to help policymakers plan for extreme heat, especially in rural and coastal communities. “We have been so focused, and for good reason, on the health impacts of heat,” but heat’s impact on the economy is “going to have much bigger consequences than we’ve appreciated so far,” hub director Ashley Ward told Coastal Review.

The Supreme Court's 2024 decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo reversed years of legal precedent that gave federal agencies the benefit of the doubt in interpreting laws when Congress’ intent was unclear from the text. While some experts say the ruling could hinder rather than help the Trump administration's plan to roll back climate rules, Nicholas Institute senior fellow Tim Profeta told Climatewire that it is "more constraining to somebody with a more expansive regulatory desire."

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. 

When a Disaster Hits Home External link

In the first part of a Duke Today series called "Disaster 101," several Duke experts provided an introduction to the disaster management cycle. The number and cost of billion-dollar extreme weather events in the United States has been steadily increasing for decades. Lydia Olander, director of the Nature Activation Hub at the Nicholas Institute, explained that climate change and people moving into high-risk areas are combining to drive the increase.

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.