Talk through
RFF Explainers
Background information on the concepts underpinning RFF research.
Social Cost of Carbon
A review of the social cost of carbon, from a basic definition to the history of its use in policy analysis.
Nature-Based Solutions
This explainer gives an overview of nature-based solutions, which protect places from floods and other environmental harms by weaving together nature and the built environment.
Interest is growing in the development and implementation of nature-based solutions to help communities adapt to a changing climate. Nature-based solutions are practices that weave natural features or processes into the built environment to protect places from floods and other environmental harms. Alternative terminology(Opens in New Tab) includes “natural infrastructure,” “green infrastructure,” and “natural and nature-based features,” depending on the specific environmental challenges engineers and policy makers seek to address. The US Army Corps of Engineers uses the term “engineering with nature(Opens in New Tab).” What these approaches have in common is that they strive to work with, not against, the forces of nature.
This explainer provides an overview of the role played by different nature-based solutions in the context of flood mitigation (nature-based solutions are often viewed through a broader lens(Opens in New Tab)). Nature-based solutions that address coastal flooding include strategies focused on dunes, salt marshes, and wetlands; in riverine areas, nature-based solutions include forested riparian buffers and natural floodplains; and for urban stormwater management, green roofs, rain gardens, and other approaches to store and retain stormwater runoff comprise the nature-based solutions toolkit.
Nature-based solutions are often evaluated in comparison to traditional “gray” (or hard) infrastructure such as dams, levees, pipes, and tunnels. The use of nature-based solutions can present multiple advantages over gray options. Most importantly, natural approaches often provide a range of benefits, or ecosystem services(Opens in New Tab), beyond flood mitigation. These benefits include water quality improvements, carbon sequestration, temperature regulation, recreational amenities, and protection of wildlife habitat.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/nature-based-solutions-101/
Sustainable Aviation
This explainer details key challenges to reducing aviation’s environmental impact and outlines potential technology and policy options for overcoming these challenges.
Commercial aviation is responsible for approximately 3.5 percent(Opens in New Tab) of global climate change. Carbon emissions from aviation have doubled(Opens in New Tab) since the mid-1980s and could use up a quarter(Opens in New Tab) of the global carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C by 2050. Finding ways to make aviation more sustainable will be critical to improving human health and environmental outcomes.
But doing so will be difficult. Low-emission aviation fuels and technologies are expensive and in the early stages of development. For international flights, it is difficult to determine who bears responsibility for the environmental impacts from international emissions, as well as who is responsible for finding solutions.
However, several countries, airlines, and international aviation organizations have begun developing ambitious sustainability plans. Because individual airplanes have lifespans of up to 30 years, today’s innovations can make big contributions to medium- and long-term climate goals.
This explainer details key challenges to reducing aviation’s environmental impact and outlines potential technology and policy options for overcoming these challenges.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/sustainable-aviation-101/
Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This explainer provides an overview of agriculture’s contributions to US greenhouse gas emissions, detailing major emissions sources and technology options for emissions mitigation.
Agriculture contributes approximately 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (not including emissions from onsite fossil energy use).
Agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. To evaluate the total impacts, emissions of the latter two gases can be converted to "carbon dioxide equivalent” (CO2e) based on their relative impacts on climate change.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/agricultural-greenhouse-gas-emissions-101/
Climate Scenario Analysis
This explainer provides an overview of how financial institutions can understand the risks of climate change and its possible financial ramifications.
Climate change can create significant risk for banks, investors, and the economy. But how can regulators and firms measure and prepare for the possible financial ramifications of physical risks like hurricanes, heat waves, and wildfires, or transition risks created by the uncertain path towards net-zero? Increasingly, institutions are turning to climate scenario analysis (or, as it is referred to in some jurisdictions like the European Union, climate stress testing,) which is a process that institutions can undertake to assess their vulnerability to these climate risks.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/climate-scenario-analysis-101/
Urban Heat Islands
This explainer details how heat islands increase temperatures, how different communities are impacted by high urban temperatures, and what can be done to mitigate their negative impacts.
More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. While urbanization has accelerated economic development in many ways, it has also created a number of environmental problems. One such problem is the creation of the urban heat island effect, defined as the increase in temperature caused by the built environment. Scholars have long observed that local temperatures in cities are higher than those in surrounding rural areas due to differences in land cover, urban geometries, and heat released by human activity. When they contribute to extreme heat, urban heat islands are more than just uncomfortable; they can lead to lasting negative impacts on people and the economy.
This explainer details how heat islands increase temperatures, why they are of concern, how different communities are impacted by high urban temperatures, and what can be done to mitigate their negative impacts.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/urban-heat-islands-101/
Climate Finance
An introduction to climate-focused financial investments, investor motivations and actions, and the challenges of and options for effective climate finance.
Climate finance refers to funding drawn from public and private sources to support climate mitigation and adaptation measures. Climate finance can come from, and support, initiatives from the global to community level.
While there are many forms of climate finance, this explainer will focus specifically on financial markets and the role that investors can play in developing a clean energy future. Investors are increasingly interested in how they can navigate the complex landscape of risks and opportunities created by climate change and the energy transition. By choosing to invest in some projects or divest from others, investors can shape the speed and breadth of climate mitigation measures. (For example, by choosing to invest in a new offshore wind company and not in a new coal-fired power plant.)
The International Energy Agency(Opens in New Tab) predicts that it will take approximately $4 trillion in annual investments by 2030 to reach global net-zero emissions by 2050. Reaching this goal will require more than tripling today’s annual investments and indicates a needed shift in the flow of capital to climate-related activities. Filling this financial gap crucially depends on investor beliefs, information, and the policy environment.
This explainer will dive into investor motivations and actions, challenges to climate-focused financial investments, and policy options.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/climate-finance-101/
Climate Financial Risk
An introduction to the risks that climate change poses to financial systems and stakeholders, as well as actions to accurately account for these risks in decisionmaking.
When an investor funds a venture, they do so with the hopes of earning more than they invested. However, investors risk financial loss if the venture underperforms or fails. This trade-off between risk and return is a fundamental consideration in any investment and leads investors to demand higher possible rewards for higher-risk investments. The presence and management of financial risk is ubiquitous across all sectors of the economy, although what that risk looks like differs by sector and by individual investment.
As climate change warms the planet and actions are taken to reduce emissions, financial institutions must reckon with new and changing risks to assets and the broader financial system. This explainer will discuss the risks that climate change poses to financial systems and stakeholders, as well as actions to accurately account for these risks.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/climate-financial-risks-101/
Border Carbon Adjustments
A border carbon adjustment, or BCA, is an environmental trade policy that consists of charges on imports, and sometimes rebates on exports. BCAs reflect the regulatory costs borne by domestically produced carbon-intensive products but not by the same, foreign-produced products
Several different phrases are often used to refer to essentially the same idea. Border carbon adjustments (BCAs), border tax adjustments (BTAs), and carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) all refer to this notion of imposing a cost equivalent to domestic climate regulatory costs on otherwise unregulated imports.
The goals fueling BCAs are twofold: to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to avoid the emergence of trade advantages and disadvantages as different governments enact climate policies with different levels of ambition. As of this writing, no BCA has ever been fully implemented—the policy option is still theoretical.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/border-carbon-adjustments-101/
Geothermal Energy
An overview of traditional and next generation geothermal technologies, the benefits and challenges of geothermal energy use and deployment, and the policy landscape for geothermal energy in the United States.
Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that comes from reservoirs of hot water beneath the Earth’s surface. With applications in several economics sectors—electricity, industry, and buildings—increased use of geothermal energy has the potential to decrease the use of fossil fuels and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. This explainer provides an overview of traditional and next generation geothermal technologies and how they work, the benefits of geothermal energy use, the challenges to increased deployment, and the policy landscape for geothermal energy in the United States.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/geothermal-energy-101/
The Land and Water Conservation Fund
An overview of the history, funding, and future of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a major source of funding for federal land acquisition and state conservation projects.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has been the principal funding source to acquire federal land for conservation and recreation purposes since 1965. The four federal land management agencies—the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Forest Service—all receive money from the LWCF. Unlike many federal programs, the LWCF does not rely on taxpayer money. Instead, it is funded primarily through the revenues the federal government earns from oil and gas leases on offshore federal lands.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/land-and-water-conservation-fund-101/
Energy Efficiency
The basics of improving energy efficiency, from how it can reduce energy use and mitigate climate change to the policies in place to encourage people to invest in energy-efficient products.
Energy efficiency refers to using less energy to provide an energy service. For example, energy-efficient LED light bulbs are able to produce the same amount of light as incandescent light bulbs by using 75 to 80 percent less electricity. Since energy production typically creates pollution and greenhouse gases, improving the energy efficiency of certain technologies has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption and consequently reduce emissions from the energy sector.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/energy-efficiency-101/
Carbon Capture and Storage
An overview of CCS technology, including how it works, where it is currently used in the United States, barriers to more widespread use, and policies that may affect its development and deployment.
Carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) formed during power generation and industrial processes and storing it so that it is not emitted into the atmosphere. CCS technologies have significant potential to reduce CO₂ emissions in energy systems. Facilities with CCS can capture almost all of the CO₂ they produce (some currently capture 90 or even 100 percent). This explainer provides an overview of CCS technology, including how it works, where it is currently used in the United States, barriers to more widespread use, and policies that may affect its development and deployment. It also includes a list of additional resources for further reading.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/carbon-capture-and-storage-101/
Renewables: Integrating Renewable Energy Resources into the Grid
An exploration of how renewables connect to the grid, how these connections impact grid operations, and implications of a high penetration of renewables for the grid in the future.
Generating electricity using renewable energy resources (such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric energy) rather than fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector and helps address climate change. While renewables are preferable to fossil fuel generators from an emissions standpoint, power output from renewable sources depends on variable natural resources, which makes these plants more difficult to control and presents challenges for grid operators.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/renewables-101-integrating-renewables/
Electricity: Terms and Definitions
Basics of the electric grid and the power industry, explained
There are three main steps in the process of getting electricity to a home or business: generation, transmission, and distribution.
Generation refers to the process of converting energy into electricity. Power plants generate electricity from a variety of energy sources, including fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas); nuclear reactions (fission); and renewable sources (such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power).
Transmission refers to transporting electricity (typically over long distances) from the power plants where it is generated to the neighborhoods and cities where it will be used. For each mile electricity travels, some power is lost. Electricity is transmitted at high voltages to minimize this loss and make transmission more efficient.
Distribution is the process of transferring electricity over the relatively short distance from transmission cables into a home or business. Between the transmission and distribution power lines, transformers in distribution substations “step down,” or decrease, the voltage to the levels required in households and businesses.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/electricity-101/
Forest Bioenergy: Generation and Emissions
Forest bioenergy has been heralded by some as a promising renewable energy source and condemned by others as having negative effects on the environment. Here’s a review of the basics of forest bioenergy generation and emissions.
Forest bioenergy describes the energy generated from the combustion of wood and wood wastes or biofuels derived from wood. Woody material can be sourced from harvested trees or from forest biomass that would otherwise have been treated as waste—residues from a harvest, production of other wood products, or from urban waste streams. Forest bioenergy has been heralded by some as a promising renewable energy source and condemned by others as having negative effects on the environment. Most International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scenarios anticipate that bioenergy will play a critical role in reducing emissions from the energy sector. This explainer reviews the basics of forest bioenergy, the different ways of looking at its impact on the environment, and the different methods of measuring and counting forest bioenergy emissions.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/forest-bioenergy-101/
Discounting
How does discounting help decisionmakers understand the costs and benefits of choices and policies—and how does it apply to climate change?
Discounting is the process of converting a value received in a future time period (e.g., 1, 10, or even 100 years from now) to an equivalent value received immediately. For example, a dollar received 50 years from now may be valued less than a dollar received today—discounting measures this relative value. The discounting process is a way to convert units of value across time horizons, translating future dollars into today’s dollars. Discounting is used by decisionmakers to fully understand the costs and benefits of policies that have future impacts. This explainer will review the rationale behind discounting, how the discount rate is calculated, and why discounting matters for climate policies.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/discounting-101/
Electrification
An overview of how electrification can reduce emissions, from the feasibility of electrifying different technologies to the policy options for encouraging economy-wide electrification.
Electrification refers to the process of replacing technologies that use fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) with technologies that use electricity as a source of energy. Depending on the resources used to generate electricity, electrification can potentially reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the transportation, building, and industrial sectors, which account for 63 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing emissions from these sectors is critical to decarbonizing the economy and, ultimately, mitigating the impacts of climate change. This explainer reviews how electrification can reduce emissions; possibilities and potential challenges of electrification in the transportation, building, and industrial sectors; and policy options for encouraging electrification.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/electrification-101/
Measuring How Scientific Research Benefits Society Using Economics
Valuing earth science information empowers scientists to show how their work benefits people and the environment.
Scientists and scientific organizations are increasingly interested in understanding and communicating how their work benefits society. It is now common to hear catch phrases like “actionable science,” “science to action,” and “science to policy” around university centers, scientific conferences, and research publications. Professional organization such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) all have significant initiatives to help scientists better understand the role of scientific information in addressing stakeholder needs and pressing policy issues.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/measuring-how-scientific-research-benefits-society-using-economics/
What Is “Value”?
What do economists mean by value, and how do they think about the value of information?
Simply put, things that have “value” are useful to you, improve your situation, or simply make you happy or more secure. An apple, a pet dog, a glass of clean water, and a walk on the beach are all things that may have value to someone. In some cases, this value can be expressed in monetary terms. Goods purchased in markets, such as food or a new car, carry prices, which are indicative of the item’s value to you. However, value need not be expressed only in monetary terms. For example, your situation or mindset can be improved by spending time with friends and family. This experience has value even if you don’t necessarily pay a specific price to receive it.
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/what-is-value/
Carbon Pricing
An introduction to carbon pricing, including carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs, the benefits and design of pricing policies, and applications around the globe.
