News
An annual report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) highlights the organization's work with Duke University and WorldFish on the global Illuminating Hidden Harvests initiative. “Part of Duke’s mission is to provide knowledge in the service of society, and this partnership with FAO allows us to conduct actionable research that can help support the millions of livelihoods worldwide that are dependent upon small-scale fisheries," said John Virdin, director of the Ocean Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute.
The new Office of Climate and Sustainability brings together several of Duke University's climate, energy, and environmental assets—including the Nicholas Institute—to help advance the mission of the Duke Climate Commitment.
Duke University's Office of Climate and Sustainability hosted a virtual town hall Tuesday evening to discuss the university's progress on the Duke Climate Commitment, which recently marked its one-year anniversary. The Chronicle rounded up comments from the speakers, including Brian Murray, interim director of the Nicholas Institute.
China recently unearthed a rare ore that could further boost its electric vehicle sector, reports Newsweek. Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute, told the magazine that China dominates the supply and refinement of raw materials necessary for EV batteries.
A peer-reviewed analysis led by Duke University researchers suggest municipal bond markets are mispricing climate and race risk at a large scale. Lead author Erika Smull, a 2022 Ph.D. graduate of the Nicholas School of the Environment, told ImpactAlpha the result is Black communities are less likely to be able to invest in climate resilience upgrades.
Titled “We Birthed a Movement: The Warren County PCB Landfill Protests, 1978-1982," an exhibit in the Keohane-Kenan Gallery in the West Duke Building explores a community’s historical response to the planned construction of a landfill for cancer-causing PCBs. “This exhibit depicts a key moment in environmental justice history. It also underscores the power of community-led advocacy,” said Kay Jowers, director of the Just Environments program.
Restoring pocosin wetlands represents an opportunity for North Carolina to combat climate change while supporting community health, wildlife and recreation, write Katie Warnell (Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability) and Curt Richardson (Duke University Wetland Center) in a LinkedIn article.
During Climate Week NYC, the Nicholas Institute, in partnership with Duke’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, organized a panel discussion that sought to expand the conversation about the impacts of extreme heat “not just on lives, but on livelihoods.” At the event, experts discussed how innovations in the financial and insurance sectors, along with partnerships with philanthropy, can help communities plan, prepare for and mitigate this growing challenge.
The world is embarking on an unprecedented energy transition to curtail global temperature rise and its impacts, but infrastructure based on renewable sources of energy is not without its own environmental and social challenges. In a blog post for Economist Impact, Elizabeth Losos (Nicholas Institute) and Motoko Aizawa (DC Commission on Human Rights) explore why we need a new mindset to help countries build infrastructure for good.
Building on a global study released earlier this year, a new paper led by Duke University researchers provides global estimates of the number of livelihoods supported by small-scale fisheries, distinguishing between subsistence and commercial fishing. The paper, published in the journal Nature Food, uses measures of subsistence fishing to highlight the importance of small-scale fisheries as a safety net for local communities.