Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy. Check out this week’s highlights below:
Restoring a Degraded Gulf of Mexico: Wildlife and Wetlands Three Years After the Gulf Oil Disaster
This report gives a snapshot view of six wildlife species that depend on a healthy Gulf and the coastal wetlands that are critical to the Gulf’s food web. It describes different sources of restoration funding and provides initial suggestions as to how this funding can be used to improve the outlook for the species discussed in the report. — via National Wildlife Federation
...We suggest that taking three manageable steps to a fair compromise will unlock progress...First, negotiate a core agreement between the 13 members in the MEF (including the EU-27), which accounts for 81.3 percent of all global emissions.This makes the negotiations feasible, where deals can be struck that would be impossible in the vast U.N. forum. — via Brookings Institution
The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather
A report released today by the Climate Commission says climate change has driven an increase in the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events like floods, bushfires, droughts and hot days...Australia’s populous southeast is particularly vulnerable, it says, sparking calls from the report’s authors for governments, emergency services, businesses and individuals to begin planning for the predicted increase in extreme weather. — via Australian Climate Commission
The combined effects of these two natural gas extraction methods [hydraulic fracturing and coalbed methane] create potentially serious patterns of disturbance on the landscape. This document quantifies the landscape changes and consequences of natural gas extraction for Allegheny County and Susquehanna County in Pennsylvania between 2004 and 2010. Patterns of landscape disturbance related to natural gas extraction activities...— via US Geological Survey
Energy Subsidy Reform: Lessons and Implications
Oil-and-gas interests, and their Republican allies, say the provisions are cost-recovery mechanisms and business deductions that other industries also claim.
In 2011, nations doled out roughly $480 billion of “pre-tax” incentives, which are “when consumers pay less than supply cost of energy,” Lipton explained. They are generally found in emerging economies, according to an IMF report released Wednesday. — via International Monetary Fund
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