Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions is one of six

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

research institutes at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

located in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. Founded in 2005, it became the first environmental-policy-centered Institute with a Duke University affiliation. The Nicholas Institute was established in 2005. In its first decade, it has led a variety of influential projects. The Nicholas Institute advised California on several aspects of the design of the country's first economy-wide

cap and trade Emissions trading is a market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing the emissions of pollutants. The concept is also known as cap and trade (CAT) or emissions trading scheme (ETS). Carbon emission t ...

program for greenhouse gases. The Nicholas Institute brought attention to one of the world's most critical environmental problems by providing the first estimates of global

carbon dioxide emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

from the destruction of coastal and marine ecosystems. Through the seminal report, ''A Silent Tsunami'', the Nicholas Institute provided a material contribution to legislation aimed at dramatically improving access to clean water and sanitation around the world. And the Nicholas Institute helped natural resource managers connect their decisions to things people care about with the first guidebook to present a scientifically defensible approach to

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Th ...

assessment. Tim Profeta is founding director. The Institute's other program directors include Brian Murray, Jonas Monast, Amy Pickle, John Virdin, Martin Doyle, and Lydia Olander. Members of the Board of Advisors include William K. Reilly, Peter Nicholas, and Joseph A. Stanislaw.

References

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External links

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
2005 in the environment Duke University Environmental policies organizations Environmental policy in the United States