{"id":194,"date":"2010-06-03T10:06:57","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T14:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=194"},"modified":"2010-06-03T10:11:43","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T14:11:43","slug":"congress-asked-and-the-national-academies-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/congress-asked-and-the-national-academies-answered\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress asked, and the National Academies answered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2008, the US Congress asked the National Academies to study and &#8220;make recommendations regarding what steps must be taken and what strategies must be adopted in response to global climate change&#8221;.\u00a0 On May 19, 2010, the Academies released three reports responding to that request.  <strong>The reports are unequivocal in their response, providing Congress a clear mandate to finally take action on passing comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The four-page summary of the first report, <em><u>Advancing the Science of Climate Change<\/u><\/em>,\u00a0 opens with a statement that could not be clearer:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;color:#c00000;\">A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The titles of the second and third report, <em><u>Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change<\/u><\/em> and <em><u>Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change<\/u><\/em> confirm what those who have been following the issue already know &#8211; we can no longer <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">avoid<\/span> the impact of climate change.  We are like a driver who sees an pile-up scene blocking the road ahead &#8211; we can put on the brakes and take evasive action, but we will not avoid becoming part of the accident.  <\/p>\n<p><em>Limiting the Magnitude<\/em> addresses what we can do to limit the damage that will occur (<b>mitigation<\/b>) while <em>Adapting to the Impacts<\/em> addresses how we live with damage that does occur (<b>adaptation<\/b>).  The two reports provide actionable recommendations for the Congress for pursuing that dual strategy of <strong>mitigation<\/strong> and <strong>adaptation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>mitigation<\/strong> strategy in <em>Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change<\/em> recommends:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A long-term policy framework that <strong>places a price on greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong>.  The price can be set by cap and trade, a tax, or a combination of the two.  To be successful, the framework must also:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Be flexible so that it can respond effectively to changing circumstances<\/li>\n<li>Make the US a leader in reductions <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> motivate other nations to participate &#8211; through bilateral and multilateral efforts<\/li>\n<li>Balance national standards that preempt state &amp; local ones with the innovation generated by state &amp; local efforts<\/li>\n<li>Not penalize states and regions that have already taken action<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>A <b>portfolio of complementary policies<\/b> that:\n<ul>\n<li>Realize the full potential of <strong>energy efficiency<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Fully <b>deploy low-emission energy sources<\/b> &#8211; renewables for electricity generation, low-carbon fuels for transportation<\/li>\n<li>Establish the <b>technical and economic feasibility of strategies to improve existing energy sources<\/b> &#8211; carbon capture &amp; storage and new nuclear generation technologies&lt;;li&gt;<\/li>\n<li>Accelerate <b>retrofits or retirements<\/b> of existing high-emission infrastructure &#8211; such as coal-fired power plants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>adaptation<\/strong> strategy in <em>Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change<\/em> is clear that an effective national adaptation strategy requires <b>action from all levels of government and the participation of the private sector and community groups<\/b>.  The report therefore recommends that a national policy framework provide:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Resources, both technical and financial<\/li>\n<li>Incentives<\/li>\n<li>Guidance<\/li>\n<li>Information collection and sharing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>to the local, state and regional authorities and stakeholders who will develop and execute adaptation efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Two additional reports will be published later this year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Informing Effective Decisions and Actions Related to Climate Change<\/em> on providing decision makers actionable information<\/li>\n<li><em>America&#8217;s Climate Choices<\/em>, an overarching final report<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nHaving asked for recommendations and received them,  Congress should now finally take action.<\/strong> Legislation implementing many of these recommendations has already been passed in the House (ACESA) and is pending in the Senate (Kerry-Lieberman).<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/americasclimatechoices.org\/\">America&#8217;s Climate Choices pages at the National Academies web site<\/a> provides links to all the reports.  Summaries of the published reports are here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dels.nas.edu\/resources\/static-assets\/materials-based-on-reports\/reports-in-brief\/Science_Report_Brief_Final.pdf\">Advancing the Science of Climate Change<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dels.nas.edu\/resources\/static-assets\/materials-based-on-reports\/reports-in-brief\/Limiting_Report_Brief_final.pdf\">Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dels.nas.edu\/resources\/static-assets\/materials-based-on-reports\/reports-in-brief\/Adapting_Report_Brief_final.pdf\">Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2008, the US Congress asked the National Academies to study and &#8220;make recommendations regarding what steps must be taken and what strategies must be adopted in response to global climate change&#8221;.\u00a0 On May 19, 2010, the Academies released three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[21,59],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy-federal","tag-federal-government","tag-national-academies","","tg-column-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}