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Special Reports

More Dollars than Sense: Refining Our Knowledge of Development Finance Using AidData

Authors: Michael J. Tierney | Daniel L. Nielson | Darren G. Hawkin | J. Timmons Roberts | Michael G. Findley | Ryan M. Powers | Bradley Parks | Sven E. Wilson | Robert L. Hicks

In this introductory essay to the special issue, we introduce a new dataset of foreign assistance, AidData, that covers more bilateral and multilateral donors and more types of aid than existing datasets while also improving project-level information about the purposes and activities funded by aid. We utilize that data to provide a brief overview of important trends in foreign aid.

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Renegades Keep Climate Finance Tracking a Wild West

By J. Timmons Roberts / Outreach Magazine

For a stretch of U.S. history back in the 1800s, two forces struggled to impose their social order on the expanses of the nation’s vast Western frontier.  On the one side were citizen “settlers” and their officials, trying to impose national laws from the East to make the place safe for building a society where joint problems like safety, land ownership, and building basic infrastructure got dealt with in a consensual and predictable way.  On the other side were bands of renegades or “outlaws,” who furtively sought the treasures of the land through their ability to terrorize the settlers and other bands of outlaws.

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Press release: Embargoed until 19 September at 00.01am

Donor nations get low scores on climate finance transparency scorecard

David Ciplet and TimmonsRoberts from Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies, helped author a score card on the climate finance transparency.  Developed countries are being far from transparent about the climate-change finance they promised to developing nations at the Copenhagen summit in 2009, according to a scorecard published today (19 September) by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

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RI Chefs & Farms Raise $48,835 for Farm Fresh RI

Local flavors abounded at the 5th Annual Local Food Fest on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at Castle Hill Inn & Resort in Newport, RI. The event, now in its fifth year, featured a dozen Rhode Island chefs, each paired with a local farm. Chefs prepared dishes featuring the freshest, most seasonal ingredients for a sold out crowd to savor, and Rhode Island vineyards and breweries offered samples. A silent auction, live music from the Fox Point Rounders, and other festivities, all took place overlooking the beautiful bay views from Castle Hill. This year Farm Fresh Rhode Island raised $48,835 for their programs to provide fresh, local food to all Rhode Islanders, thanks to a great team effort and our generous sponsors.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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ARTICLE: RATIONAL ELECTRICITY REGULATION: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND THE PUBLICINTEREST

AUTHOR: JEREMY KNEE

PUBLICATION: WEST VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW, VOLUME 113, SPRING 2011, NUMBER 3

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

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Outreach - a multi-stakeholder magazine on environment and sustainable development

“A Collective Commitment”? Nailing down Climate Finance in Cancun and Durban

The surprisingly positive conclusion at Cancun was as much about the process as the substance of the two key texts that are now in place to advance the negotiations over the next year leading to Durban.   There were standing ovations at the transparent and inclusive process that brought the year of negotiations to a close, putting some of the bad feelings of Copenhagen behind us...

Click here to read more.

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The Mycota of Rhode Island By R. D. Goos

 A Checklist of the Fungi Recorded in Rhode Island (Including Lichens and Myxomycetes)

The centerpiece of this peer-reviewed book is a taxonomic listing of fungi, including lichens and myxomycota, known or likely to occur in Rhode Island. Each listing for the approximately 1,700 species includes a taxonomic classification, synonymy, and bibliography, as well as notes on hosts, substrates, medical or economic significance, common name, and status in the state. Other useful features in the book include a short introduction summarizing the history of mycology in Rhode Island, a bibliography of taxonomic and evidentiary sources, 11 pen-and-ink illustrations by Roberta Calore, and an index that includes all taxonomic entries as well as substrates and general topics.

The Mycota of Rhode Island is available from August 2010 directly from RINHS for $60.00 ($54 for RINHS members) +$10 S&H to U.S. addresses.

Order by contacting RINHS by mail at P.O. Box 1858, Kingston, RI 02881, by e-mail at programadmin@rinhs.org, or by phone at 401-874-5800.

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The Huffington Post - 26 November 2010

At climate summit, all eyes on Brazil

Guy Edwards, research fellow in environmental studies, co-authors this op-ed about the world climate summit in Cancun. The article examines whether Brazil will assume the role of leader for developing countries who generally do not have the means to combat global warming and extreme weather events.

Full report online: www.huffingtonpost.com
See news release: today.brown.edu/articles/2010/11/cancun

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18th November 2010

Keeping a big promise: options for baselines to assess “new and additional” climate finance
CIS Working Paper 66/2010

Martin Stadelmann (University of Zurich), J. Timmons Roberts (Brown University), Axel Michaelowa (University of Zurich)

Summary
All major climate policy agreements - the UN Framework Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and recently the Copenhagen Accord - have stated that climate finance for developing countries will be ”new and additional”. However, the term “new and additional” has never been properly defined. Agreeing a system to measure a baseline from which “new and additional” funding will be calculated will be central to building trust and realizing any post-Kyoto agreement. We explore eight different options for a baseline, and assess each according to several criteria: novelty to existing pledges, additionally to development assistance, environmental effectiveness, distributional consequences, and institutional and political feasibility. Only two baseline options do well on these criteria and are therefore viable: "new funds only" and "above pre-defined business as usual level of development assistance".

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25th, October 2010

Calculating Commitment to the Climate

BRUSSELS — There was a surge of optimism at the Copenhagen climate conference, when the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, backed an international aid package worth hundreds of billions of dollars to help poor countries counter threats like rising seas and desertification. The surprise announcement by the United States to join the European Union and other wealthy nations in making the pledges represented a singular moment of global cohesion during an event remembered more for its unremitting acrimony...

To read more click here.

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N AT U R E | VO L 4 6 7 | 2 1 O c T O b E R 2 0 1 0

Articles: Ecology - Plant patterns predict collapse :: Drug Development - Worm surgery
on a chip :: Oceanography - Cold water rising in the Pacific :: Energy - Plenty of energy,
not well shared

To read more click here.

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October 2010

Copenhagen’s Climate Finance Pledges

A number of commentators have rightly blamed the train wreck in Copenhagen on a lack of trust between parties, especially between developed and developing worlds.  Out of the confusion came one seemingly clean and ambitious promise in the Copenhagen Accord that might support rebuilding that trust: “Scaled up, new and additional, predictable and adequate funding…

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Rich nations failing to keep Copenhagen promise to help poor nations adapt to climate-change Research published today shows that developed nations are failing to keep the promise they made last year to provide adequate finance to help the world’s poorest countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The paper — published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) — includes a five-point plan to enable developed nations to fulfill their pledges and build the trust needed to advance the next session of UN climate-change negotiations, which begin on 29 November in Cancun, Mexico.

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Ecological Economics

From constraint to sufficiency: The decoupling of energy and carbon from human needs,
1975–2005 - Julia K. Steinberger a, J. Timmons Roberts b

In this article, we examine the evolving relationships between energy, carbon and indicators of
human development. By conducting a novel longitudinal analysis, we find evidence of previously undescribed secular trends; we project these trends to 2030 and consider their implications.

To learn more click here.

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Three New ecbi Publications on Climate Finance
Available on the ecbi homepage (www.eurocapacity.org)
Apologies for cross-postings

Climate Finance after Tianjin
How to reach a deal at Cancún?
This ecbi Policy Brief by Benito Müller looks at whether the progress and momentum of the LCA finance negotiations in Tianjin could be harnessed to bring about a successful outcome at Cancun, and what that would be.

How many people does it take…
...to administer long-term climate finance?
David Ciplet, Benito Müller, and J. Timmons Roberts address the question of whether it is possible to give some estimate of how many people it would need to manage the sorts of sums currently talked about with regards to longer-term climate finance.

National Funding Entities
Their role in the transition to a new paradigm of global cooperation on climate change Luis Gomez-Echeverri presents a new report on National Funding Entities (NFEs) in the lead-up to Cancun this December.

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Civil society organizations look to build on Cochabamba success in Cancun

In April this year, the First World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth drew over 35,000 people to the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. The challenge it posed to the climate establishment for failing to reach an agreement in Copenhagen, as well as its substantive accomplishments, are considered a revolution in social mobilization around the mounting threat of climate change.

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Preliminary Assessment of RI's Vulnerability to Climate Change and Options for Adaptation Action

Graduate Seminar on Special Topics in Environmental Studies:
Urban Adaptation to Climate Change

Professor Timmons Roberts, Kathryn Birky, Kimberly Damm, Noah Fisher, Dayanch
Hojagyedliyev, Jeremy Knee, Loreana Marciante, Cicely Marshall, Courtney
Mattison, Courtney McCracken, Sara Mersha, Jessica Pagan and Kyle Poyar
March 2010


Copenhagen's climate finance - six key questions
Co-authored by CES Director Timmons Roberts
February 3, 2010


Billions at stake in climate finance: four key lessons
Co-authored by CES Director Timmons Roberts
December 4, 2009