Debt-for-nature swaps were conceived nearly 40 years ago to help financially struggling nations get relief from their foreign debt payments in exchange for their commitment to carry out conservation and climate activities. Ahead of moderating a Climate Week panel on the subject, Nicholas Institute expert Liz Losos spoke with Duke Today about reforming these transactions to ease post-COVID debt crises while helping meet international biodiversity and climate targets.

Melinda Kramer and Amira Diamond—co-founders of the Women’s Earth Alliance—are among the recipients of the 29th annual Heinz Award for the Environment. Kramer is a member of the advisory board of the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University.

The interconnection queue is the process by which utilities decide which wind and solar farms get to hook up to the power grid in the United States. Duke University Ph.D. student Tyler Norris, formerly vice president of development at Cypress Creek Renewables, joined Heatmap's Shift Key podcast to discuss perhaps the biggest obstacle to deploying more renewables on the U.S. power grid—and how to fix it.

Flexible interconnection service could sharply reduce the time and cost it takes to bring power supplies online, according to a study from Duke University scholars being discussed at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission workshop. “This [study] offers a very clear, quantitative analysis on the potential benefits of flexible interconnection service that just hasn’t been available to date,” Duke Ph.D. student Tyler Norris told Utility Dive.

At Climate Week NYC (September 22-29, 2024), influential leaders from multiple sectors will exchange ideas and collaborate on plans to accelerate climate action. A delegation of Duke University scholars will help drive dialogue at this annual convening, which drew more than 6,500 attendees last year. In addition to organizing three public events, Duke University experts will be facilitating closed-door conversations and networking with decision-makers and with current and potential external partners.

According to Copernicus, the EU agency that tracks global warming, extreme heat in 2024 will likely break records. “We’re talking about ecosystem change on a global scale that’s going to affect all of us,” Ashley Ward, director of the Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub, told The New York Times. “Our energy systems, built environment, and medical services were never built with this type of temperature regime in mind.”

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.

Two studies conducted by Duke University researchers have found substantial cost and time savings are possible with flexible “connect and manage” interconnection of utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage projects, reports PV Magazine. The lead researcher for both studies, Duke Ph.D. student Tyler Norris, reported the findings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in advance of a workshop next week. 

Duke University experts are partnering with colleagues at the University of Georgia and numerous other collaborators to develop the Center for Innovation in Risk-analysis for Climate Adaptation and Decision-making (CIRCAD). CIRCAD's new podcast, Circadian Wisdom, features conversations about positioning the insurance and reinsurance sectors to serve as champions in the fight for climate resilience.

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.