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Director of Energy and Climate Policy Jackson Ewing was one of the expert panelists at the Asia Society Seattle's webinar discussion on the state of global climate change efforts in Asia. The panel highlighted Asia’s crucial role as one of the regions most vulnerable to natural disasters and global warming as well as one of the biggest contributors to climate risks and home to five of the largest greenhouse gas-emitting countries and half of the world’s CO2 emissions.

As 90+ degree days become more common, more accurate measures of extreme heat, such as wet bulb globe temperature, can help protect outdoor workers, Ashley Ward, director of the Duke University Heat Policy Innovation Hub, explained to North Carolina Health News.
 

Transitioning away from an energy system dependent on fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Watch this webinar recording from Duke Alumni Lifelong Learning to learn from Duke experts, including moderator and Nicholas Institute executive-in-residence Eric Rohlfing, what needs to change to adopt a workable clean energy plan for all and reduce our over-reliance on fossil fuels. See the other videos in the playlist here.

The new Nicholas Institute publication brings together available scientific evidence on mangrove degradation and recovery with anecdotal details from managers and scientists based in Puerto Rico and Florida to help inform management of mangrove habitats in the Jobos Bay and Rookery Bay research reserves.

Utilities in some states are proposing new natural gas plants to keep up with rising electricity demand. “I can’t recall the last time I was so alarmed about the country’s energy trajectory,” Tyler Norris, a power systems expert and PhD student at the Nicholas School of the Environment told The New York Times. Norris wrote a policy brief last year that provides an example of an innovative regulatory solution that could push utilities toward clean energy sources.

Supporting electric vehicle manufacturing, repair and infrastructure is increasingly important as EVs make up an ever-greater percentage of on-road vehicles. Nicholas Institute research lead Trey Gowdy, in collaboration with the National Association of State Energy Officials and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, wrote a new report that provides an essential inventory of workforce development and training programs directly related to transportation electrification in the Southeast.

The two-day “Risk Science for Climate Resilience” symposium brought together Duke scholars and invited guests to strategize about how Duke could utilize its strengths and partnerships to stimulate novel approaches to climate risk in the private sector and scale up climate resilience efforts.

Reducing climate change’s growing threat to the planet requires an unprecedented partnership between government, academia, nonprofits, businesses and others, speakers said Wednesday during an all-day summit at Duke. The event was organized by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, the Fuqua School of Business, Fuqua's Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment, and Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

John Podesta, who is overseeing Inflation Reduction Act spending in the Biden administration, argued Wednesday that the IRA’s investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be difficult to reverse, even if a Republican takes the White House in November, The News & Observer reported. Podesta was among the speakers at the "From Billions to Trillions: The Inflation Reduction Act as a Catalyst for Private Investment" summit at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Clean energy leaders in the upper echelons of business, finance, and policy gathered Wednesday for a one-day summit at Duke's Fuqua School of Business to discuss the role of the private sector in decarbonizing the global economy, The Chronicle reported. “We know that switching on finance via policy is essential for accelerating this energy transition,” Duke President Vincent Price said. “It will require unprecedented levels of cooperation and thoughtful engagement.”