In The News

The Atlantic: Is Trump's Climate-Change Agenda Politically Sustainable?

Ronald Brownstein June 2, 2017
After long raising doubts about climate change, the US president decided to withdraw from the global treaty on climate change. He claims his decision will create jobs and questions if the agreement will truly stem climate change. He says he will try to renegotiate a deal already agreed by more than 190 countries, and expressed little concern that reopening the treaty could be difficult. The...

Brookings: Should We Be Worried About Cleantech Foreign Investment? It’s Complicated

Rachel Barker, Ryan Donahue, and Brad McDearman May 23, 2017
Innovation in cleantech, or clean technology, could make America’s energy sector more efficient, cheaper and safer. Due to its high-risk, high-reward nature, cleantech relies on venture capital investment for funding, but that has been steadily declining. Hence foreign mergers and acquisitions may help the US “protect its status as a global innovation leader,” note Rachel Barker, Ryan Donahue and...

Project Syndicate: Stop Insuring Climate Disaster

Bill McKibben May 11, 2017
As alternative energies become more competitive, the transition from fossil fuels would go much faster if the insurance industry accounts for the challenges of climate change and does not give coal and other fossil fuels a free ride. “While insurance industry representatives declare their intent and passion to rein in climate change and ensure a livable planet, in the back rooms their agents are...

BBC: Graphene-Based Sieve Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water

Paul Rincon April 4, 2017
More than 95 percent of earth’s water is saltwater in the oceans. A research team with the University of Manchester has created a sieve that may remove salt from seawater. Testing is underway and “The sought-after development could aid the millions of people without ready access to clean drinking water,” reports Paul Rincon for BBC News. Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a...

The Diplomat: Will Central Asia Water Wars Derail China's Silk Road?

Nishtha Chugh March 31, 2017
China continues to expand influence with its modern version of the Silk Road, a “prodigiously bold economic ambition to connect with potentially 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa,” reports Nishtha Chugh. “The vast economic corridors and infrastructural network, when fully functional, will potentially give China unprecedented access to 60 percent of the world’s population and a third of...

CNBC: The Costs of Dumping Obama’s Clean Power Plan

Jason Bordoff March 29, 2017
Despite polarization among US lawmakers, the president can accomplish much with executive orders. Donald Trump is dismantling his predecessor’s climate legacy, explains Jason Bordoff, a professor and founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Orders announced today “direct agencies to rewrite regulation...

Project Syndicate: Where Has All the Water Gone?

Yasmin Siddiqi March 24, 2017
Water is a limited resource for a global population that has tripled over the last 60 years. In an essay for Project Syndicate, Yasmin Siddiqi of the Asian Development Bank focuses subterranean aquifers that store water underground and supply about 30 percent of the world’s liquid freshwater, but many of these ancient sources cannot quickly be replenished. “Surface water resources, such as...