Research Library

As iron ore, copper, and lithium producers, Brazil and Chile have a competitive advantage in the global energy transition. This brief outlines the countries' opportunities to profit from their exports while reducing their domestic consumption of fossil fuels.

"The COVID-19 effect is likely to reduce the demand for public transport in favor of lower density alternatives," write the authors. Their study considers links between commuters' demographic factors and incidence of disease transmission, as well as the environmental implications of decreased ridership on public transport.

This brief explores a potential hydrogen pathway that also creates opportunities for advanced carbon-based materials in a clean energy future.

The authors argue that the health care system needs to be better integrated with the social services sector, so that when people encounter either realm, they’ll get more of their needs addressed — including the social determinants of health. Health Affairs Blog: https://bit.ly/3wx1Pbh

Advanced recycling of plastics can help the U.S. achieve sustainability goals and a climate-neutral, circular economy.

The authors investigate the connection between the choice of transportation mode used by commuters and the probability of COVID-19 transmission.

With opposition to large-scale energy infrastructure on the rise, transmission service providers find it problematic to build the new power lines essential to a greener grid. This paper highlights the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy Zone initiative (CREZ) — a case study of the difficulties that new power lines face and the policy choices that can facilitate development of this necessary infrastructure. The CREZ experience can inform development of new large-scale transmission infrastructure in other regions.

A working group led by the Baker Institute has developed an innovative measurement-based standard — “BCarbon” — for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil as organic carbon. BCarbon is a scalable soil carbon storage standard designed to work for landowners and soil carbon storage buyers. The proposed standard allows landowners to monetize soil carbon storage as a property right.

The authors assert that the time is ripe for the United States and Europe to take the lead on shepherding a systems-level change in the recycling market, strengthened by government regulation and legislation. They examine the economic, social, and environmental impacts of mismanaged waste and argue that the Covid-19 pandemic could serve as a catalyst for action toward a global, circular economy.

Parental stress, which is heightened during natural disasters, can produce negative physiological responses in the developing brains of their infants and young children. This irreversibly alters the child’s brain structure, impacting their long-term prospects for good health and academic and economic success. Now is the time to institute policies and practices that mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the next generation, write the authors,