Climate Change

In the lead-up to the United Nations climate change conference US-China Today spoke with Kelly Sims Gallagher, Director of the Center for International Environment & Resource Policy at Tufts University, to see how the U.S. and China can best handle this existential threat.

Climate change is the keystone environmental problem of our times. While most proposed solutions emphasize reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion, measures that protect our remaining wildlands are also a means to combat and adapt to climate change. The designation of Mojave Trails, Castle Mountains, and Sand to Snow National Monuments in the California desert is an important mechanism for the United States to help fulfill its promise as a global leader on climate change.

The wake-up call of the last week, month and year is just the beginning. Images of climate change continue to become more personal as we see flooding in our towns — and our basements. But let’s not wallow in bad news. Let’s focus on solutions, especially when many of them — designed intentionally — will help us meet multiple restoration goals. By investing in nature, we will realize all of the benefits it affords, including resilient landscapes, clean air and clean water.

Nithya Ramanathan, an assistant research professor at UCLA, is co-founder and president of Nexleaf Analytics, a startup that's using mobile phone sensor technology to improve health and the environment. In India, another place where millions of people rely upon wood stoves, Nexleaf is studying how various next-generation clean stoves actually perform in reducing emissions.

In Jewish tradition, Challah is a loaf of yeast-risen bread, often braided, blessed and then consumed on Sabbaths and holidays. Every aspect of Challah – from its making to its eating – is replete with wisdom tradition and reminders about our overarching duty to steward Creation. The burgeoning protests against Dominion Resources and its partners over the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina is a kind of community Challah with righteousness at its core.

A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that states can gain large clean air and public health benefits from power plant carbon standards.

Pay As You Save® Financing for Clean Energy Upgrades, championed by Holmes Hummel, founder of Clean Energy Works, will open access to $10bn in financing for cost-effective, distributed energy resources to customers of utilities that implement a voluntary tariff for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Read more

As Joe Rand, a second-year Master’s degree student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), scanned the room at the Wind Exchange Summit in Orlando, Florida, on May 18, he felt privileged to be surrounded by some of his heroes in the wind and energy sector. Rand, who focuses on the social effects of energy development, was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy’s NOVUS Ventus Award for the impact that he has made on the wind industry early in his career. Read more

As world leaders gather in Paris for the long-awaited COP21 climate talks, Switzer Fellows are among the leaders pushing for positive action on climate. They are serving in roles varying from country delegation members, UN representatives and supporting roles with NGOs, indigenous groups and providing necessary research and data to be used in the ensuing talks, negotiations and meetings.