Each week, I review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted over at the RFF Library Blog.
Climate Action in Megacities
[New Statesman] Since 2009, cities across the globe have taken over 1,000 actions. Climate Action in Megacities 3.0, a report from the C40 in partnership with Arup, is a definitive assessment of how the world’s leading mayors have taken on the urgent challenge of climate change. It presents major new insights into the current status, latest trends and future potential for climate action at the city level. The report highlights practical and replicable examples, like Portland’s decision to issue Green Bonds from 2016 to finance LED retrofits and other sustainability projects, and Athens’s creation of a new internal coordinating body to ensure sustainability goals are integrated across all city departments. Ho Chi Minh City is collaborating with Rotterdam to shift from planning a climate change adaptation strategy to implementing it. - via C40 | Arup
Disclosing the Facts: Transparency and Risk in Hydraulic Fracturing 2015
The 2015 edition of our annual investor scorecard ranking the 30 largest oil and gas companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” finds improved risk disclosure by a few companies, even as 70 percent of the energy companies continue to get failing marks. - via Boston Common Asset Management
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment
While the basic principles of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) are long-standing, the challenges entailed in applying these principles are constantly evolving. This paper reviews recent developments in environmental CBA since the publication of an OECD volume on this topic by Pearce et al. (2006). The character and direction of these developments also evolves over time and the current review reflects this process - via OECD
Rapid and Highly Variable Warming of Lake Surface Waters Around the Globe
[NASA Press Release] Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a new NASA and National Science Foundation-funded study of more than half of the world’s freshwater supply. - via Geophysical Research Letters
Little Evidence Frackers Contaminated Pavillion Groundwater
[Casper Star-Tribune] A 30-month state investigation costing more than $900,000 concludes fracking is unlikely to have contaminated drinking water east of Pavillion but leaves many other questions unresolved about the role natural gas operations may have played in polluting the water. - Pavillion WY Area Domestic Water Wells Draft Final Report and Palatability Study
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