In the face of mounting evidence of the dire consequences of climate change, researchers and policymakers are giving serious thought to responses that once seemed the stuff of science fiction: geoengineering, carbon dioxide removal, and adaptation.
The 2016 general election will have enormous implications for energy and climate policy in the United States. While much attention will be paid to the positions of presidential candidates, congressional and state elections will also have major implications for how federal and state governments address a variety of crucial issues such as implementing greenhouse gas reduction policies, regulating fracking, crafting subsidies for renewable energy, and much more. Experts with a variety of perspectives will discuss which elections they’re most closely watching, and what different results might mean for energy and climate policy in Michigan, Washington, and beyond.
Co-hosted by the Department of Economics, John Leahy will deliver an entertaining and insightful lecture celebrating his installment as the Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics.
This talk explores a surprising new strategy for climate change policy that has emerged in the last 10 years: “reclaiming the atmospheric commons.” The strategy combines the idea of making polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions with the additional idea of using those revenues to generate tangible, broadly distributed public benefits.
Policy Talks @ the Ford School,
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture Series
Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz (AB '84) returns to the University of Michigan to chair a panel of public servants from rebounding Midwestern cities: Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; and Youngstown, Ohio. Each provides an example of the Obama Administration's "place-based" approach in action.
Climate change is a potential threat to the welfare of mankind and its mitigation is becoming urgent. Nuclear energy, which provides one-fifth of U.S. electricity generation, is currently the leading utility-scale, carbon-free baseload power source in America. But it is expensive, controversial, and regulated in a way that poses challenges to technological innovation. So how does nuclear power fit into U.S. climate change mitigation goals going forward?
This interdisciplinary symposium focuses on contemporary and historical cases analyzing the relationship between climate change and social conflict in the Middle East.
Never before have so many people in so many developing countries made so much progress in reducing poverty, improving health, increasing incomes, expanding health, reducing conflict, and encouraging democracy. The Great Surge tells the story of this unprecedented progress over the last two decades, why it happened, and what it may portend for the future.
The Ford School's annual policy event and networking reception in Washington, DC, with featured speaker, Barry Rabe, J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy.
The Education Policy Initiative and the School of Education welcome Rohit Chopra, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Susan Dynarski, professor of education, public policy, and economics at the University of Michigan, to discuss the repercussions of the $1.3 trillion dollar student loan deficit on higher education and economic inequality.
How do Americans think about energy? Is the debate over fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy highly partisan and ideological? Are people’s preferences for different energy sources idiosyncratic, or is there a common pattern that explains how people view energy across sources? How much does concern about climate change weigh on these opinions?
Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling Health Policy Fund
Out in Public hosts a panel with Douglas Brooks, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy at the White House; Noël Gordon, Senior Specialist for HIV Prevension & Health Equity at the Human Rights Campaign; and K. Rivet Amico, Research Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The panel will be moderated by Paula Lantz, Associate Dean for Research & Policy Engagement at the Ford School.
The Ford School hosts a conversation with former U.S. Congressmen for the State of Michigan, Dave Camp and Mike Rogers, moderated by their former colleague in the House of Representatives, Professor Joe Schwarz.
Join Gretchen Whitmer for a discussion on the Detroit Grand Bargain with the proceedings leading negotiators and communicators: Judge Steven W. Rhodes, Judge Gerald R. Rosen, Judge Mike Gadola, Senator Randy Richardville, Representative Tommy Stallworth, and political reporter for The Detroit News Chad Livengood.
This event will be held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC
The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) invites our Washington DC colleagues to attend a discussion hosted by the Wilson Center/Canada Institute featuring CLOSUP Director, Barry Rabe, and our collaborating National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE) partners, Christopher Borick, Director, Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion, and Erick Lachapelle, Assistant Professor, University of Montreal. The discussion will feature findings from the FALL 2015 round of ongoing survey work in both Canada and the US. Key themes will include public views on whether climate change is occurring, response to a range of possible policy options across levels of government, and reaction to Pope Francis' recent engagement on the issue. The U.S. portion of the survey will also include an early look at how Americans want their states to respond to the new Clean Power Plan. The session is free but requires registration. Please call 202-691-4000 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat.
In recognition of Earth Day, please join us for a very special lecture about what it takes to pass historic air quality legislation. Margo Oge served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 32 years, the last 18 of which she directed the Office of Transportation Air Quality. Ms. Oge led the Obama Administration’s landmark 2012 Clean Air Act deal with automakers, the nation’s first action targeting greenhouse gases. This regulation will double the fuel efficiency of automakers’ fleets to 54.5 mpg and cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2025.
The Ford+SPPG Conference is an annual student-led policy conference among students at the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) at the University of Toronto and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It’s a great opportunity to further your understanding of multi-stakeholder and cross-border policy collaboration and implementation – and have fun in the process! At the conclusion of the weekend, a panel of faculty judges will select the best proposal.
The Obama Administration’s EPA created a stir when it recently proposed widely varying state carbon-intensity targets to be achieved by 2020 and permanently by 2030. Dr. Engel will discuss a recent paper that examines the bases for federal allocation, among the various states, of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to meet federal air pollution standards under the Clean Air Act.
Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling Health Policy Fund,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Join the conversation on Twitter: #FordPolicyUnion About the speaker In more than forty years of distinguished public service Ambassador (ret) John Negroponte, a career American diplomat, held such positions as US Ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq. He served twice on the US National Security Council staff, first as director for Vietnam in the Nixon Administration and then as Deputy National Security Advisor under President Reagan.
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Join the conversation on Twitter: #policytalks About the topic Few cases have generated as much controversy as Citizens United. The story told by reformers and reporters is that Citizens United ushered in a new era of dark money, with wealthy corporations spending wildly, saturating the airwaves, and taking over American politics. Most of that story is wrong, and some of it is nonsense.
Book Talks @ The Ford School,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
Noting the federal government's long history of partnering with religious and secular charities to serve communities in need, Joshua DuBois, Spiritual Advisor to President Obama and former Executive Director of the White House Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships discusses how he navigated religious issues in the White House and the devotionals that he sent to President Obama each morning.
Free and open to the public (pizza provided). Bob Inglis, Executive Director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative based at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. About the presenter: Inglis founded and launched the national, grassroots organization Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI) in July 2012.
Presenting Rip Rapson, President & CEO of the Kresge Foundation Free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow in the hallway outside of room 250. About the speaker: Rip Rapson is president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation, a $3.1 billion private foundation based in metropolitan Detroit and founded by S.S. Kresge in 1924.
Anthrax scares, nuisance lawsuits and political attacks and are all in a day's work for some climate scientists. In his July 2012 feature story in Popular Science, journalist Tom Clynes investigated the people and organizations behind the harassment—and their influence on scientific research, public opinion and policy.