The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is creating a $100 million program to support research intended to encourage policies aimed at reducing the threat of global warming. The foundation's climate change project, which is being announced today, comes amid an increasing political push for legislation to curb emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and gasoline. Several bills that would set mandatory restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, have been introduced in Congress. Other clean-energy bills under consideration are intended to increase the use of renewable energy and promote energy efficiency. Most of the presidential hopefuls for 2008 have proposals to deal with climate change.
"This a well-timed contribution of support for the enormous job we face in the next few years trying to figure out the most productive carbon policy for the United States," said Robert H. Socolow, a professor and co-director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University.
All charitable grants for climate change programs add up to nearly $100 million a year, according to philanthropy experts. So the Duke foundation commitment of $100 million over five years is "a very big deal," said Eric Heitz, president of the Energy Foundation, a partnership of foundations that promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy.
But the Duke foundation's commitment, while sizable, is probably most significant for its focus. "It has decided to take a path that should have a disproportionate impact, to sponsor the analysis and research to shape policy," said Hal Harvey, director of the environment program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a leading philanthropic supporter of environment and energy programs.
The Duke foundation decided on its approach to climate change philanthropy after talking to dozens of scientists, policy analysts and other experts over the last 18 months, said Andrew J. Bowman, director of the new program. The guiding principal, he said, is that smart policy would stimulate the deployment and adoption of clean-energy technologies.
Though just getting under way, the broad outlines of Duke foundation's research agenda are set. It will, for example, support research into issues like the appropriate price that should be placed on emitting a ton a carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from power station smokestacks or car tailpipes, and how to best design a system to either tax emissions or set up a cap-and-trade scheme.
Cap-and-trade is the approach embodied in the current legislative proposals, and it would involve setting an economywide cap on total carbon dioxide emissions, allocate or auction emissions allowances to utilities and other companies, and create a trading market in these "permissions to pollute."
"How these policies are designed is crucial in terms of getting the right price signals that will encourage efficient private sector investment," said Robert N. Stavins, director of the environmental economics program at Harvard University. "And getting the design of policy right is where the Duke foundation's support could have a real impact."
Mr. Bowman of the Duke foundation said that putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions was crucial to provide the economic incentive for needed investments in industrial cleanup, innovative low-carbon technologies and renewable sources of energy like solar and wind power.
"But we also need policies that complement carbon price policy," Mr. Bowman said.
Huge gains, Mr. Bowman said, should be achievable in energy efficiency with more stringent rules for building codes and appliance standards, which mandate the use of modern electronics and materials. The regulatory regime for utilities, he added, should be overhauled to encourage investment in "smart grids" that can monitor and conserve electricity. In most states, utilities are still paid to produce megawatts but not to save megawatts.
Homes, offices and power plants, Mr. Bowman noted, often last for 50 or 60 years. "We have to do everything we can to make sure we deploy the most efficient technologies that we can over the next five and ten years to prevent having an economy that is locked in to a really inefficient infrastructure," he said.
The Duke foundation also plans to support research in strategies for adapting to climate change, which includes steps like protection from floods, building dikes and emergency evacuation plans. Adaptation policies assume that it is best to prepare for the ill effects of a warmer planet, even while taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate Change Initiative - Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
By STEVE LOHR
Published: April 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/business/09climate.html
