Practitioner’s Guide: Capacity Development for Environmental Sustainability

United Nations Development Programme http://content.undp.org/go/cms-service/download/publication/?version=live&id=3229860 [UN Pulse] Capacity development and environmental sustainability are both central to UNDP’s mandate and programming.The purpose of this Practitioner’s Guide is to provide practical guidance to UNDP staff, partner countries and other development partners on the nature of environmental capacity and how to support capacity development for environmental sustainability

Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems: Summary of a Workshop

National Research Council (free downnload of pre-publication version available with registration) http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13132.html The polar regions are experiencing rapid changes in climate. These changes are causing observable ecological impacts of various types and degrees of severity at all ecosystem levels, including society. Even larger changes and more significant impacts are anticipated. As species respond to changing [...]

Where are Global and U.S. Trade Heading in the Aftermath of the Trade Collapse: Issues and Alternative Scenarios

Federal Reserve Board of Governors / by Joseph W. Gruber , Filippo di Mauro, Bernd Schnatz, and Nico Zorell http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2011/1017/ifdp1017.pdf [Abstract] Global and U.S. trade declined dramatically in the wake of the global financial crisis in late 2008 and early 2009. The subsequent recovery in trade, while vigorous at first, gradually lost momentum in 2010. [...]

National Water Resources Challenges Facing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

National Research Council http://download.nap.edu/cart/deliver.cgi?record_id=13136 [free PDF with registration] [From Summary] The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is responsible for construction, operations, and maintenance of much of the nation’s water resources infrastructure. This infrastructure includes flood control levees, multi-purpose dams, locks, navigation channels, port and harbor facilities, and beach protection infrastructure. The Corps of Engineers [...]

Understanding and Managing Risk Security Systems for the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex

National Research Council http://download.nap.edu/cart/deliver.cgi?&record_id=13108 [free PDF with registration] [From Preface] This study was requested by the Senate Appropriations Committee in response to what that committee saw as unsustainable rates of increase in the cost of security at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In current-year dollars, security costs have increased from $550 million in 2002 [...]

Towards E-Mobility: The Challenges Ahead

Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, European Bureau http://www.fiabrussels.com/download/emobility/emobility_full_text_fia.pdf [From Press Release] Consumers will not automatically make the switch to electric vehicles if running costs are high, a recharging station network is not in place, or if new technologies are not user-friendly, according to a new policy paper by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) European Bureau…. [...]

Land Use-SOER 2010 Thematic Assessment

European Environment Agency http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/europe/land-use/at_download/file [Abstract] Land use shapes our environment in positive and negative ways. Productive land is a critical resource for food and biomass production and land use strongly influences soil erosion and soil functions such as carbon storage. Land management largely determines the beauty of Europe’s landscapes. It is important therefore to monitor [...]

Reassessing Renewable Energy Subsidies

Bipartisan Policy Center / by Nate Gorence and Sasha Mackler http://tinyurl.com/46ozmzx [From report website] This Issue Brief…examined the tax incentives for renewable electricity development. Recognizing the renewable energy tax credits have been an enormously important mechanism for growing the industry, the primary goal of this analysis was to explore how they could be improved to [...]

EPA Promoted the Use of Coal Ash Products With Incomplete Risk Information

US EPA / Office of Inspector General http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2011/20110323-11-P-0173.pdf [From Introduction] We initiated this review to determine whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) followed accepted and standard practices in determining that coal combustion residuals (CCRs) are safe for the beneficial uses it had promoted on its Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2) program website…. EPA did [...]

Sustainable Mobility in African Cities

United Nations Human Settlements Programme | The International Association of Public Transport http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.aspx?nr=3082&alt=1 This report is the summary of the seminar on Sustainable Development of Public Transport in Africa held in Nairobi, Kenya, on November 10 and 11, 2009. The event was jointly organised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT), UITP (the International [...]