Energy & Environment
-
China-US Dispute On Clean Energy: Economic and Geopolitical Stakes
•
Jean Vilbert is an academic in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a Resident Fellow at the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (University of Wisconsin). A recent report from the International Energy Agency shows that in 2020, renewable electricity production increased at its fastest pace in…
-
The City Is Not Designed for Women
•
As stated by author and feminist-issues researcher Caroline Criado-Perez, the world is designed mostly by men with mostly other men in mind. The gender-based gap in data has been known to exist for a long time, and male-biased data has affected the living experiences of women in oft-realized but nether-talked…
-
How to Accelerate the Electric Vehicle Transition
•
The United Nations Environment Programme has assessed that global emissions must drop 7.6% annually from 2020 through 2030 to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. A previous Chicago Policy Review article discussed the critical importance of transportation decarbonization to…
-
Labor, Business, and the Political Barriers to Climate Action
•
For a brief moment in 1988, America seemed ready to confront climate change. Scientist James Hansen’s senate testimony on rising temperatures received widespread media coverage, a Global Climate Protection Act passed with bipartisan support in Congress, and even incoming Republican president George H. W. Bush spent his campaign discussing the…
-
The UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” is a Misnomer
•
How do countries pursue socioeconomic development in a sustainable and equitable way? This question has received considerable attention, more so with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing about discussion of a green (economic) recovery. The United Nations formulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to provide a framework for global development, ranging…
-
Housing Discrimination Informs Racial Gaps in Pollution
•
A large body of evidence shows that Black and Hispanic Americans are disproportionally exposed to harmful pollutants. People of color are more likely to live near hazardous waste landfills, more likely to reside near contaminated waterways, and more likely to breathe air containing pollutants such as ozone. Scholars have named this phenomenon the…
-
The Connection Between Oil Prices, Stock Volatility, and Green Investments
•
Amid increasing social attention on sustainability, green investments are drawing interest. Green investments inject money into firms producing and supporting eco-friendly goods and services. For instance, the MSCI Global Environment Index, a stock price index of firms that generate at least half of their revenues from eco-friendly products and services,…
-
Could Global Warming Increase Racial Disparities in Student Achievement?
•
While much of global warming research focuses on the natural world — considering how climate change impacts ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity — a new wave of research studies how climate change will reshape the social and economic world. In this emerging field, a novel study suggests that global warming may…
-
Interview: Kim Wasserman and Juliana Pino of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
•
The following is an edited transcript of an interview conducted by Kelly Aves, a second-year student at the Harris School of Public Policy. Kelly spoke with Kim Wasserman and Juliana Pino of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO). Kim is the Executive Director of LVEJO and has been a…
-
Brazil’s Environmental Downturn: A Tale of Many Cattle
•
On September 28, Brazil’s National Environment Council (CONAMA), led by the Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, abolished Resolutions 302 and 303/2002. It established mangrove fields as Areas of Permanent Protection (APP). CONAMA will likely make a similar decision regarding the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area located in southwest Brazil.…
-
Cleaner Electric Grid Key to Effective Electrification of Transportation
•
Global efforts to mitigate climate change rely on strategies that dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations Environment Programme has assessed that global emissions must drop by 7.6% annually from 2020 through 2030 to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above…