Climate Change & Energy

The emerging offshore wind industry presents a significant opportunity for the United States to achieve its decarbonization goals. However, the nation lags considerably in offshore installations compared to the rest of the world. A recent study explains how connection to the electricity grid, technology, and policy have hindered offshore wind development.  

Nearly 2.4 billion people (about 40 percent of the world’s population) live within 100 kilometers of the coast. As coastal cities continue to grow, so too will their influence as actors in shaping sustainable development. A new paper highlights the largely overlooked role of ocean cities in international legal frameworks to address environmental degradation in marine and coastal environments.

Seagrass meadows are dynamic and critical ecosystems that provide numerous benefits to humans living in coastal areas. They are also at the center of exciting new research into the potential of “blue carbon” sequestration to help combat climate change. 

Solar geoengineering – a technology that reflects incoming sunlight back into space – has gained attention as a potential solution for preventing global temperature rise and reducing the risk of the worst global warming impacts. Recent research shows that solar geoengineering has the capacity to immediately cool the atmosphere, but also calls attention to the fact that it can be extremely controversial and excessively risky.