Energy Resources & Access

he success of the Paris climate talks, COP 21, this December will not be measured by whether or not countries can all agree on a new global deal. It will rest on deals made outside the negotiation halls and beyond the traditional scope of international climate talks.

Sarah Moffitt recently published two research papers on climate change in ocean systems, both with a significant media splash. On the other side of that experience, she has some hard-won perspective about what worked for her — and what she still needs to practice.

A new report by Fellow Evan Hansen's company, Downstream Strategies, was featured in a recent article in West Virginia's The State Journal. Morgantown is leading the charge in saving energy and creating clean initiatives, but a recent study found there are plenty of untapped resources in the city and across West Virginia.

As the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China has made a number moves in the past year to reduce emissions and clean up its environment.

When you ask Switzer Fellow Sue Chiang (2007) about what drives her passion to expose the hidden dangers of fracking, her answer is straight and to the point. “We’re looking at a new California Gold Rush, only this time the frenzy is nationwide, and now we have technology that’s capable of leaving an environmental footprint exponentially more harmful than what was possible in the past," says Chiang.

The call today by Pope Francis in his transformational papal encyclical on the environment, reminds us that climate change is first and foremost about people, and it’s the poorest among us that will suffer the most.

A group of scientists from the Atmospheric Measurement Research (ARM) Climate Research Facility won’t be looking for gold or oil this summer as they crisscross Alaska’s North Slope in an airplane. Instead, the ARM Airborne Carbon Measurements V (ARM-ACME V) team—led by Sebastien Biraud from U.S.

As California battles its worst drought in 1,000 years — and after massive wildfires swept across the state for two consecutive summers — a number of tribe members, scientists and U.S. Forest Service officials are working to revive traditional Native American land management practices that some believe could help contain the blazes and lessen effects of the drought. ...

Where are we heading now in our quest for more "cheap energy"? North, to the Arctic! Despite the Obama Administration's jawboning about the dangers of climate change and the Administration's Climate Action Plan, it has recently given conditional approval to Shell Oil to drill for oil in the perilous waters of the Chukchi Sea. Experts who know the risks of drilling in those cold and remote waters say there is a high probability of an oil spill and that Shell has no credible means of cleaning it up. The company's record scarcely inspires confidence.