Each week, I review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted over at the RFF Library Blog.
Water Resources Governance in Brazil
Water is abundant in Brazil, but unevenly distributed across regions and users. Remarkable progress to reform the sector has been achieved since the 1997 National Water Law, but economic, climate and urbanisation trends generate threats that may jeopardize national growth and development. The consequences are particularly acute in regions where tensions across water users already exist or are likely to grow. The report is the result of a policy dialogue with more than 100 stakeholders at different levels in Brazil. It assesses the performance of Brazil’s water governance and suggests policy recommendations for strengthening the co-ordination between federal and state water policies and for setting up more robust water allocation regimes that can better cope with future risks. The report concludes with an action plan, which suggests concrete milestones and champion institutions to implement those recommendations. - via OECD (This fee-based report is available free to RFFers on OECD iLibrary; if prompted for a password, see the library passwords page.)
Reducing Deforestation to Fight Climate Change: Insights From a CFR Workshop
[CFR Energy, Security, and Climate blog] Why has Brazil slashed deforestation over the last decade while Indonesian deforestation has accelerated?…
Figuring out why Brazil has succeeded while Indonesia has lagged can provide insight into how both countries can do more. - via Council on Foreign Relations
Missouri Comprehensive State Energy Plan
[St. Louis Public Radio] …The recommendations are somewhat broad and are divided into five categories:
Efficiency of Use
- Modifying the Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act
- Improving the state’s water infrastructure
- Improving the state vehicle fleet
- Developing statewide building energy codes
- Utilizing Missouri’s property assessed Clean Energy Act, improving Missouri’s energy loan program and expanding Missouri’s linked deposit program
- Expanding energy improvements in state facilities
- via Missouri Dept. of Economic Development, Division of Energy
Ice Thickness in the Northwest Passage
Recently, the feasibility of commercial shipping in the ice-prone Northwest Passage (NWP) has attracted a lot of attention. However, very little ice thickness information actually exists. We present results of the first ever airborne electromagnetic ice thickness surveys over the NWP carried out in April and May 2011 and 2015 over first-year and multiyear ice. These show modal thicknesses between 1.8 and 2.0 m in all regions. Mean thicknesses over 3 m and thick, deformed ice were observed over some multiyear ice regimes shown to originate from the Arctic Ocean. Thick ice features more than 100 m wide and thicker than 4 m occurred frequently. Results indicate that even in today’s climate, ice conditions must still be considered severe. These results have important implications for the prediction of ice breakup and summer ice conditions, and the assessment of sea ice hazards during the summer shipping season. - via Geophysical Research Letters (September 25, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/2015GL065704) / by Christian Haas and Stephen E. L. Howell
California Draft Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy
[Green Car Congress] The California Air Resources Board (ARB) released a draft Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy. The draft strategy describes proposed actions the State will take to move forward aggressively to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). - via California Air Resources Board
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