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:
OECD Report: Carbon Taxes and Emissions Trading are the Least Expensive Ways to Lower CO2 Emissions
Economic textbooks predict that taxes and emission trading systems are the cheapest way for societies to reduce emissions of CO2. This book shows that this is also the case in the real world. It estimates the costs to society of reducing CO2 emissions in 15 countries using a broad range of policy instruments... — via Effective Carbon Prices
Banking on Nature: the Economic Benefits to Communities of National Wildlife Refuge Visitation
A new report says visitors to federal wildlife refuges generate more than $2 billion a year in economic activity, helping to employ more than 35,000 people and produce about $343 million in local, state and federal taxes. — via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Importance of Water to the U.S. Economy: Synthesis Report
EPA has issued a long-awaited report on the economic value of water, with the agency underscoring the “clear” importance of the resource to nearly every sector but adding that economic information about water is “elusive” and that significantly more research is needed to accurately quantify water’s benefits to the economy. — via U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water
Executive Order — Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change
President Obama’s just-issued order requiring EPA and other agencies to ensure infrastructure is more resilient to the effects of climate change could open the door to strict new siting and construction requirements, such as infrastructure standards and possible limits on coastal development... — via The White House
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