Energy Efficiency in the South is a recent report by a team of researchers at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Georgia Institute of Technology and that uses state-of-the-art economic modeling to evaluate the potential impact of energy efficiency policies on Southern states. The energy efficiency policies examined by the research team fall into three broad categories: residential, commercial, and industrial. The report also includes state profiles for each state in the region (including the District of Columbia) and the economic and employment impacts of energy efficiency for each individual state.

During recent years, the U.S. agricultural sector has experienced high prices for energy-related inputs and commodities, and a rapidly developing bioenergy market. Greenhouse gas emissions mitigation would further alter agricultural markets and increase land competition in forestry and agriculture by shifting input costs, creating an agricultural greenhouse gas abatement market and expanding bioenergy demand. The potential effects of these events on the agricultural sector are being hotly debated. We use a multisector model (FASOM-GHG, Adams et al, 2009) to estimate the potential implications of these developments on net farm income and the U.S. agricultural sector.

In light of the continuing uncertainty regarding if and when a U.S. compliance market for carbon will be established, this paper summarizes approaches for generating U.S. funding for international climate action that are outside of any U.S. climate bill. Proposals along the lines of those presented here were identified by Project Catalyst and Climate Advisers as being both politically feasible and financially effective. In addition, a newly released international Monetary Fund proposal for the creation of a "Green Fund" capable of meeting the $100 billion target set in the Copenhagen Accord is discussed.

The most common stormwater policy structure across North Carolina local governments is for developers to bear full responsibility for stormwater best management practices construction and the associated costs, and for the subsequent property owners to bear full responsibility for operation and maintenance of best management practices. Options for improvements to the policy framework to solve these problems are constrained. This report offers recommendations to help local governments in North Carolina better address these issues.

Carbon trading works only if markets for carbon provide enough liquidity and pricing accuracy. Further, the creation of a de novo market for carbon assumes that the incentives to create such markets exist and that these markets will occur in the form that regulators desire. We argue that while regulators should receive all relevant information on trades (a trade repository), some discretion is necessary in the structure of markets. We suggest that regulators follow a hybrid approach to regulation, where regulators require some markets to exchange-traded centralized limit order books, require trades between large financial intermediates to be centrally settled, but allow for some contracts to be over-the-counter with the right to move markets to a different reporting or settlement structure as they develop. Such an approach requires the regulator to have genuine discretion in decisio making. 

Public lands have the potential to make significant contributions to climate mitigation objectives and are likely to play an important role in comprehensive climate policy. Existing legislation and regulations provide broad authority for public lands to contribute to carbon sequestration, emission avoidance, and biomass production objectives. Introducing new climate policy objectives, however, requires balancing with other objectives, such as endangered species preservation, recreation, protection of soil and water resources, grazing, timber harvesting, energy production and natural resource extraction.

Concerns about expected increases in energy and other agricultural input costs have led some to oppose greenhouse gas cap-and-trade legislative proposals. However, these policies could result in significant revenue for U.S. agriculture, which is a potential source of low-carbon bioenergy and low-cost abatement alternatives to fossil fuel emission reductions through terrestrial sequestration, afforestation and reductions in nitrous oxide and methane emissions. It is important to simultaneously model these factors in order to properly assess the net impacts of low-carbon policies on U.S. agriculture. Existing studies of the impacts of low-carbon policies on the agricultural sector have generally not accounted for changes in production practices, demand responses, or commodity and offset revenuse. In this study, we estimate the U.S. net farm income implications of moving to a low-carbon economy. We find higher input costs, higher output prices, modest consumer response, increased bioenergy supply and offset income opportunities. On net, we find that the U.S. agricultural sector would benefit from a U.S. climate policy.

Discussion document developed by request from council members in the Gulf of Mexico and reviewed by experts in fisheries science and policy.

Programs for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries through climate policy enjoy wide support. Indeed, this support is affirmed by the Copenhagen Accord, which notes the importance of reducing emissions and enhancing carbon removals in forests. And while important implementation details have yet to be decided, the Copenhagen Accord also pledges to immediately establish a mechanism and mobilize financial support from developed and developing countries to undertake such actions in their forests. By nothing that this finance will support a REDD+ system, the Accord also seems to support the notion of expanding the scope of land-use accounting and policy incentives beyond just reducing deforestation and degradation. 

On December 11, 2009, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Carbon Limits and Energy for America's Renewal Act (CLEAR). Some have described the bill, which aims to reduce overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions through the creation of an upstream cap-and-trade program, as a politically viable approach to passing comprehensive climate change legislation in the Senate. This primer provides a detailed overview of the bill, including concerns about the extent of the greenhouse gas reductions it could achieve.