INCREASING A CARBON TAX'S EMISSIONS CERTAINTY
Interest in a carbon tax as a policy tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise revenues is growing, but academics acknowledge some uncertainty about how much such a tax would affect those emissions. Harvard Environmental Law Review has published symposium essays in which contributors propose regulatory and legislative solutions that would reduce this uncertainty--with an introduction describing the role of carbon pricing in contemporary climate change policy. In one essay, three Nicholas Institute researchers examine four mechanisms: changing the tax rate or schedule, using traditional regulatory tools, spending revenue raised by the tax to directly reduce emissions, and creating hybrid approaches that combine elements of all three. In a Q&A they highlight their findings regarding how these mechanisms could respond to deviations from identified emissions goals. They also describe how addressing emissions uncertainty under a carbon tax can draw on lessons from an allowance price reserve--a feature of some cap-and-trade programs to reduce price uncertainty.
OCEAN THREATS AND CONSERVATION FUNDING
For Our Shared Seas: An Overview of Ocean Threats and Conservation Funding, California Environmental Associates interviewed the Nicholas Institute's John Virdin about the priority-setting process, staffing structure, and funding flows for marine investments at the World Bank, where Virdin worked for more than a decade. In the chapter "A Toolkit for Philanthropy to Understand Development Aid Investments," Virdin shed light on how the World Bank supports developing country governments to reform fisheries, reduce poverty, and improve fisheries management and governance. 
REALITIES OF FUNDING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
Conservation Finance Network interviewed the Nicholas Institute's Martin Doyle about the realities of funding water infrastructure in today's political and economic environment. In the article, Doyle talked about two transactions in water markets that show promise of encouraging future private investment--one involving an attempt to obtain private capital for a pump station at a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir to increase irrigation water delivery in eastern Washington. "The thing that's really interesting about it is the people who are structuring the deal are trying to tie environmental performance to the operation of the pumping plant," said Doyle. 
CUAHSI Hydroinformatics Conference
July 26,Tuscaloosa, Alabama
 
 
Canadian Ecosystem Services Toolkit
August 2, Online Webinar
 
Climate Accord and the Clean Power Plan
On the day President Trump announced the U.S. exit from the Paris Agreement, the Nicholas Institute's Tim Profeta and Brian Murray got together to discuss the historic climate accord, starting with the science that underlies it. Exiting the agreement, they said, will undermine the ability of the United States to shape solutions to climate change. In a joint statement with Jeffrey Vincent of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Kelly Brownell of the Sanford School of Public Policy, they said "The president's decision runs counter to prodigious evidence on the science and economics of climate change."
American Association for the Advancement of Science , Nature Provides Valuable Services That Benefit All, Experts Say
Newsweek , Climate Change Will Hurt the Poor and Help the Wealthy  
ScienceDaily , Biodiversity Loss from Deep-Sea Mining Will Be Unavoidable
Duke Chronicle , Duke, Durham React to U.S. Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement


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