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Begin New Search Topic Climate Change Content Type Working Paper Publishing Institution Aspen Institute

1. City Resiliency and Climate Change: A Report from the 2020 Inter-Policy School Summit

Author:
Energy and Environment Program
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The Inter-Policy School Summit is a student-run conference hosted by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. The Summit brings together graduate students from around the world each year to propose solutions to pressing global issues. The 2020 Summit was held February 28 – March 1, 2020. Graduate students from twenty universities in four countries gathered together to explore innovative strategies to address the issue of City Resiliency and Climate Change with the goal of identifying potential solutions to help urban areas adapt to climate change related challenges. As climate change alters our environment and causes increased instances of extreme weather, cities around the world are faced with new, damaging, and often life-threatening weather events. Dangerous flooding, superstorms, unprecedented heat waves, and raging forest fires are just a few of the climate change-related phenomena that present challenges to cities’ infrastructures and disaster response abilities. Vulnerable cities around the world need actionable sustainability and resilience plans to protect the health and safety of their citizens. While many cities may understand the need to act, they often face obstacles, such as lack of resources, expertise, manpower, or political will to find and implement the most effective or innovative solutions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Urbanization, Urban, and Resilience
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Supply and Demand in a Time of Changing Geopolitics and a Changing Climate

Author:
Aspen Institute
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The Forum on Global Energy, Economy & Security is an annual conversation to discuss global energy markets, crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas supply and demand, midstream, shale development, geopolitics, energy security, and environmental topics. The forum features Aspen’s time-honored moderated roundtable discussion format which, while each session is introduced by brief presentations, stresses dialogue between participants rather than conference-style speaker presentations with question and answer only. The forum is enhanced by an informal atmosphere and a not-for-attribution rule that encourages new thinking, dissenting opinions, and frank discussion.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Renewable Energy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. NextGen Network Key Takeaways: Prague, Czech Republic

Author:
Aspen Institute
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Aspen Central Europe hosted the Network in Prague in January 2019, with participants from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Participants emphasized that there should be a focus on mapping where exactly AI can support existing professions, create new ones, but most importantly streamline the education system towards current trends and lifelong learning. It is essential to speed up the adoption of AI in Europe, as well as connect it with major challenges in society, such as tackling climate change or innovating healthcare, where, for example, AI can be explained by its promoters as a way of delivering better services rather than merely introducing a new technology.
Topic:
Climate Change, Science and Technology, Health Care Policy, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:
Europe, Czech Republic, and Central Europe

4. Climate Change and National Security: How Can Public Policy Change the World?

Author:
Aspen Institute
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The Aspen Institute partnered with the University of Chicago’s Inter-Policy School Summit on March 1-3, 2019, to host 40 graduate students from around the world to explore and consider the intersection between Climate Change and National Security, a topic that will come to play an increasingly important role in the policy realm for decades to come. The participants were asked to research various topics within the larger theme and write white papers proposing rigorous and tangible solutions for the quaternary effects of climate change, especially when they pertain to national security.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Migration, National Security, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
United States of America and North America

5. Scaling Clean Energy: Lessons Learned and New Approaches

Author:
Roger Ballentine and Andy Karsner
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
We are still in the early stages of a transformation of the U.S. electricity sector into a cleaner, more flexible, more resilient, and more dynamic system. The early history of investment in and adoption of clean energy technologies and practices has been mixed. The venture capital model has proven to be inadequate for scaling up clean energy, and anticipated policy developments have been slow to be realized. The sector-reshaping impact of unconventional gas, uneven capitalization of clean energy companies, and the mixed signals of government policymakers have slowed the march to a more distributed energy economy rooted in the greater use of renewables, the more efficient use of energy, and the optimization of information technologies in the energy sector.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, Industrial Policy, Markets, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

6. Responding to Trends in the U.S. Electricity Sector

Author:
Dave Grossman (Rapporteur) and Sue Tierney, Chair
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
New federal regulations, changes in fuel prices and trends, the expansion of distributed energy resources, declines in U.S. electricity consumption, and advances in technology are all spurring utilities and regulators to respond and adapt. Discussions of the challenges and opportunities these forces present for the U.S. electricity sector – as well as how the industry and its regulators are adapting – formed the heart of the 2014 Aspen Institute Energy Policy Forum. This report summarizes and organizes some of the key insights from those discussions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:
United States

7. Report of the Ocean Community Strategy Roundtable

Author:
David Monsma
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
In 2013, the Aspen Institute published The Ocean Community Report, a study based on a 2012 roundtable discussion with oceans leaders at Fort Baker, California on the state of ocean conservation, as well as two research papers on marine protection advocacy, policy and management.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Maritime Commerce, and Water
Political Geography:
California

8. The Future of the U.S. Electricity Sector

Author:
Bill Dickenson (Co-Chair), Phil Sharp (Co-Chair), and Dave Grossman (Rapporteur)
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The future of the U.S. electricity sector is hard to foresee – and it is never wise to overpay one's fortune tellers – but there appear to be some key trends and technologies that may reshape future electricity markets and determine the innovativeness, resilience, security, and global competitiveness of the sector. Discussions of the sector's past, present, and future formed the heart of the 2013 Aspen Institute Energy Policy Forum. This report summarizes and organizes some of the key insights from those discussions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, Markets, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States

9. Changing Currents: Turbulence for the Electricity Industry?

Author:
Phil Sharp
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The question is never whether the United States has an energy policy. It has dozens. They come with various decision-makers at overlapping levels of authority, ample numbers of stakeholders, and generally lots of confusing and often contradictory signals.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States

10. Global Energy Markets in a Time of Political Change

Author:
Bill White
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
A shift in relative energy consumption among regions and the development of new, unconventional supplies will be the most significant changes over the next twenty years. The dominant fuels in the world energy market until 2030 will continue to be hydrocarbons — oil, coal, and natural gas. Major shifts will occur, however, among the three fuels, among regions and in their supply. Globally, oil will continue to be the most widely used fuel as it supplies more than 90 percent of the energy for transportation. Coal, now the dominant fuel used for electric power generation, will lose ground to natural gas, a less carbon-intensive hydrocarbon. Natural gas will become the second largest overall supplier and well positioned to replace coal as the leading supplier for electric power. Developing countries will lead the way in overall energy growth, with Chinese and Indian energy demand growing fastest. Energy demand in developed countries will remain flat. For the United States, growth in gas shale and oil shale are likely to be “game changers,” altering the supply picture dramatically.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Markets, Political Economy, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States, China, and India

11. Providing Energy Services in a Changing Industry

Author:
James E. Rogers
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
July 1, 2010. Anyone following the path of an electron today could be excused for thinking he or she was in the wrong millennium. “Dinosaurs” still rule the world. Large, central power stations produce the vast majority of electricity. Coal, natural gas, some oil, or uranium enters on one end. Electrons and various other byproducts—some innocuous, most not—leave on the other, pushed over long distances across aging transmission lines. Many get lost along the way.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, Oil, and Law

12. The New World of Natural Gas

Author:
John M. Deutch
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The development of natural gas from shale is providing new possibilities for gas use in the United States and throughout the world. The largest conventional natural gas deposits are concentrated in the Middle East and Russia, but unconventional natural gas, including shale, is spread throughout the world, potentially permitting development in many different countries.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and Globalization
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Middle East

13. An Electricity Grid for the 21st Century

Author:
Linda Stuntz and Susan Tomasky
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
For many years, electricity transmission has been designed to provide enough interconnection to provide affordable, reliable supplies of electricity. Recent developments in market mechanisms, technologies and policy goals have begun to pose different requirements on the existing grid system. To meet the needs of all beneficiaries of transmission enhancements, new planning, siting and cost allocation strategies must be implemented.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Industrial Policy

14. Climate Change and the Electricity Sector

Author:
Paul Runci
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
With the expectation that a new Administration and new Congress in 2009 will actively consider climate change legislation, the Aspen Institute's 2008 Energy Policy Forum chose the topic of “Climate Change and the Electricity Sector.” The Forum, now in its 31st year, convened a select group of leaders and policy experts to discuss commercial and public policy issues at the intersection of energy, the economy and the environment. As in previous years, the format relied heavily on dialogue among the diverse participants who brought a variety of perspectives and areas of expertise to the table. Short introductory presentations kicked off each half-day session, and a spirited, off-the-record discussion followed.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

15. Population and the Environment

Author:
Joel Cohen
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Humans have influenced environmental changes in the past, and vice versa. The two-way interaction between people and their environments will continue in the future. In the coming half-century, the human population will probably be larger, more slowly growing, more urban, and older than in the twentieth century. No one knows whether humans will be more internationally mobile. These changes, with uncertain environmental consequences, result from human choices, individual and collective, and are therefore subject to influence by programs and policies.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, Human Welfare, Science and Technology, and OPEC

16. Plant Biotechnology and the Environment

Author:
Gordon Conway
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Many people who worry about the environmental effects of plant biotechnology fear that we are dealing with some new threat. I would argue that this is not the case. It is not plant biotechnology that is new and unknown, it is the combination of biotechnology and globalization, and the incredibly fast pace at which the two spread and interact, that should concern us.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, Government, and Science and Technology

17. Transition to an IP Environment

Author:
Robert M. Entman
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
This year's Aspen Institute Conference on Telecommunications Policy began as an attempt to chart a future in which packet-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will supplant traditional switched circuit telephony. Among other things, VoIP appears to be propelling the marginal cost of long-distance telephoning toward zero, a development with profound implications for interexchange carriers. However, prompted in part by Lawrence Strickling's specially-commissioned piece, “The Telecommunications Marketplace in 2002: A Somewhat Fanciful Scenario,” it did not take long for conference participants to realize that a great deal more than the future profitability of long-distance service is at stake.
Topic:
Climate Change, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States