Energy Resources & Access

Does Elevated CO2 Alter Silica Uptake in Trees?

Paying attention to the twinned threats of climate change and species extinction requires ingenuity, cash, and nimble legal mechanisms. Two novel solutions—REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and Biodiversity Offsetting—comprise potentially win-win solutions.

Nasa's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) has returned its first global maps of the greenhouse gas CO2. The satellite was sent up in July to help pinpoint the key locations on the Earth's surface where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed. This should help scientists better understand how human activities are influencing the climate. The new maps contain only a few weeks of data in October and November, but demonstrate the promise of the mission.

Through greater reliance on renewable power and energy efficiency measures already required under the state’s progressive energy laws, Arizona can achieve mandatory emissions reduction targets more easily and cheaply than federal guidelines anticipate, according to a group of University of Arizona researchers. The group’s comments are in response to the Clean Power Plan, an EPA proposal to reduce the country’s use of coal-dominated electric power to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. ...

The U.S. and other nations were applauding this weekend’s climate change agreement on Monday, but the deal’s difficult negotiations showed all too clearly the major hurdles that lie ahead as officials try to reach a much more sweeping pact next year in Paris. The 196 nations gathered in the Peruvian capital agreed that each country should offer a plan next year for reducing its own greenhouse gas pollution. In a major win for the U.S. position, developing nations like China and India are also encouraged under the deal to join richer countries in agreeing to make cuts.

On Thursday night, climate negotiations had turned into a script for a thrilling film on international intrigue. A document so far held secret was inadvertently leaked well before it was planned to be released by the United nations climate change convention secretariat. That set off a series of high-drama sequences which by night time, when talks were suspended again, had plunged the conference into uncertainty. ...

The new agriculture: From food farms to solar farms Across the U.S., government agencies and energy developers are looking at agricultural land to develop renewable energy resources like wind and solar. Researchers will examine the policy shift from protecting farmland at all costs to promoting renewable energy over other uses. They will begin with a case study from California, which favors renewable energy development instead of agriculture, and make policy recommendations that could be applied to renewable energy development in Western New York.