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2019-06-01
Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance;
After a pause during the Great Recession, housing costs began rising again as the shortage of homes identified in 2001 began to widen. In some degree, this is because of nationwide changes that have increased demand for apartments and homes on small lots, especially in walkable, transit-connected places. But Greater Boston is also a victim of its own success. The many attractive characteristics of our region are drawing new households by the thousands. Young adults are forming new families and older residents are less likely to flee to Florida and Arizona. Overall, the population of the region is growing – in fact, Massachusetts is the fastest growing state in the Northeast. The disinvestment and population declines of earlier decades have been reversed, and the benefits are overwhelmingly positive. But, if housing supply cannot keep up with demand, these gains could be lost.
From 2010 to 2017, the Metropolitan Boston region added 245,000 new jobs, a 14 percent increase. Yet according to the best data available, cities and towns permitted only 71,600 housing units over that same time period, growth of only 5.2 percent. When supply of new housing does not keep pace with the growing demand created by new workers and young adults forming new households, there is more competition for the existing units. Low rental vacancy rates (just above half of normal) and low for-sale inventory (just above a third of normal) make it a landlord and sellers' market, allowing them to charge top dollar to the highest bidder. Continued demand for labor, driven by economic growth and the retirement of the Baby Boomers is likely to continue driving strong population growth and housing demand well into the future. Compounding the issue is the fact that Baby Boomers will continue to need housing well after they retire, but are stuck in large single family homes because there are very few affordable options to downsize.
For more information: https://ma-smartgrowth.org/resources/resourcesreports-books/
2019-04-19
Clean Energy Group;
This report, which describes how states can use energy efficiency funds to provide incentives for energy storage, is a publication of Clean energy group (CEG), with appendices containing several white papers prepared by the applied economics Clinic under contract to CEG. This report explains the steps Massachusetts took to become the first state to integrate energy storage technologies into its energy efficiency plan, including actions to 1) expand the goals and definition of energy efficiency to include peak demand reduction, and 2) show that customer-sited battery storage can pass the required cost-effectiveness test. The report summarizes the economics of battery cost/benefit calculations, examines key elements of incentive design, and shows how battery storage would have been found to be even more cost-effective had the non-energy benefits of batteries been included in the calculations. The report also introduces seven non-energy benefits of batteries, and for the first time, assigns values to them. Finally, the report provides recommendations to other states for how to incentivize energy storage within their own energy efficiency plans. Four appendices provide detailed economics analysis, along with recommendations to Massachusetts on improving its demand reduction incentive program in future iterations of the energy efficiency plan.
2019-04-15
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance;
Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico and other coastal communities in 2017 was a sobering reminder that climate change is happening now, and that the impacts hit hardest in low-income communities, communities of color, and communities historically overburdened by an extractive economy built on fossil fuels. For Latinx communities across the United States, the threats of climate change compound existing inequalities, including poverty, discrimination, proximity to environmental hazards, and challenges in immigration status during this malicious current federal administration.
2019-04-10
Environmental and Energy Study Institute;
Even though the 115th Congress did not enact a comprehensive infrastructure bill as many had hoped, lawmakers passed and advanced several pieces of legislation that address resilience in homes, defense facilities, airports, and water infrastructure. Going forward, resilience should be a central goal for the new construction, repair, or modernization of any infrastructure project, from early planning, budgeting, and design, through the duration of a project's life cycle. At a minimum, Congress can require resilience metrics and mitigation strategies for federally-funded projects. Prioritizing resilience in planning decisions can help meet the challenges posed by climate change-driven events, facilitate greater resource efficiency, and promote safe, healthy, and enduring infrastructure where people can thrive. Future infrastructure investments should reflect a triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental sustainability in a manner that equitably serves the community.
2019-04-04
UN Environment Programme (UNEP);
Human life depends on the benefits the ocean provides for health, well-being and economic growth. But we are using the ocean's resources faster than they can naturally recover. There is a widening gap between the declining health of the ocean and the growing demand for its benefits. Securing healthy oceans and coasts to contribute to sustainable development requires widespread changes in how we manage our activities in and around coastal and marine areas. The need for change is clear as the impacts of over-exploitation, pollution, coastal development and climate change on oceans and coasts become increasingly visible.
Marine protected areas offer one of the best options for maintaining or restoring the health of ocean and coastal ecosystems, particularly when they form part of holistic policy and integrated management systems.
Strong governance that influences human behaviour and reduces impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems is essential for marine protected areas to be truly effective. This Guide provides evidence-based advice on how to use the governance of marine protected areas to promote conservation and share sustainable marine resources. It has been developed using 34 marine protected area case studies from around the world. It provides a governance framework and highlights key issues in order to address specific governance situations.
The Sustainable Development Goals and targets on oceans recognize the need to combine biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, with a clear role for people and the equitable sharing of costs and benefits.
The Guide shows how integrated governance can combine the roles of national governments, local communities, and market schemes to enhance the effectiveness of marine protected areas. There is no "one size fits all" solution. This guidance therefore provides a flexible approach to governance that can be relevant to any marine protected area.
The case studies used in the Guide cover a variety of marine protected area types, including no-take, multiple-use, small, large, remote, private, government-led, decentralized and community-led protected areas. They highlight different governance approaches, challenges faced, and solutions implemented to achieve conservation objectives. Further details can be found in the Case Study Compendium that supports the guide.
Global in scope, the guide recognizes the essential aspects of gender, class and ethnicity-related equality as fundamental factors to achieving sustainable development goals and delivering effective and equitable governance of marine protected areas.
People who can benefit from this Guide include planners, decision-makers and practitioners engaged in marine protected area development and implementation, or those who have a general interest in protected area governance.
Ultimately, governing the oceans in a sustainable way could see marine protected areas as a driver - not a limit - for the vital economic and social benefits that we derive from the global ocean.
2019-04-01
Current Biology;
One of many challenges in the conservation of biodiversity is the recent trend in the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events. The Shark Bay World Heritage Area, Western Australia, endured an unprecedented marine heatwave in 2011. Catastrophic losses of habitat-forming seagrass meadows followed, along with mass mortalities of invertebrate and fish communities. Our long-term demographic data on Shark Bay's resident Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) population revealed a significant decline in female reproductive rates following the heatwave. Moreover, capture–recapture analyses indicated 5.9% and 12.2% post-heatwave declines in the survival of dolphins that use tools to forage and those that do not, respectively. This implies that the tool-using dolphins may have been somewhat buffered against the cascading effects of habitat loss following the heatwave by having access to a less severely affected foraging niche. Overall, however, lower survival has persisted post-heatwave, suggesting that habitat loss following extreme weather events may have prolonged, negative impacts on even behaviourally flexible, higher-trophic level predators.
2019-03-12
UN Environment;
This report aims to make a small contribution to the above challenge by compiling practical cases of marine and coastal management from different regions that have integrated a gender perspective in their design, implementation and evaluation, at community, project and policy levels. The report aims to draw out practical lessons and recommendations from the case studies that can be useful for policy makers and project managers involved in integrated coastal and marine planning.
2019-03-11
Elsevier;
This research takes a holistic approach to considering the consequences of marine plastic pollution. A semi-systematic literature review of 1191 data points provides the basis to determine the global ecological, social and economic impacts. An ecosystem impact analysis demonstrates that there is global evidence of impact with medium to high frequency on all subjects, with a medium to high degree of irreversibility. A novel translation of these ecological impacts into ecosystem service impacts provides evidence that all ecosystem services are impacted to some extent by the presence of marine plastic, with a reduction in provision predicted for all except one. This reduction in ecosystem service provision is evidenced to have implications for human health and wellbeing, linked particularly to fisheries, heritage and charismatic species, and recreation.
2019-03-11
World Meteorological Organization (WMO);
Every year, WMO issues a Statement on the State of the Global Climate based on data provided by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and other national and international organizations. For more than 20 years, these reports have been published in the six official languages of the United Nations to inform governments, international agencies, other WMO partners and the general public about the global climate and significant weather and climate trends and events at the global and regional levels.
2019-03-07
Environmental and Energy Study Institute;
Due to growing concerns about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels and the capacity and resilience of energy grids around the world, engineers and policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to energy storage solutions. Indeed, energy storage can help address the intermittency of solar and wind power; it can also, in many cases, respond rapidly to large fluctuations in demand, making the grid more responsive and reducing the need to build backup power plants.
2019-03-01
Blue Ventures;
Across the Caribbean, the invasion of red lionfish (Pterois volitans) poses a pervasive threat to marine ecosystems and coastal fishing communities. First recorded in Belize in 2008, lionfish have become well established across the country's entire marine environment. Uncontrolled, invasive lionfish populations disrupt marine food webs, negatively impacting coral reef health and fisheries productivity, thereby undermining the resilience of coral reefs and reef-associated systems to global change.
This document describes how to design and implement an integrated approach to lionfish management – incorporating environmental, social and economic wellbeing goals – and provides specific recommendations for the adaptive management of lionfish in Belize.
2019-03-01
European Foundation Centre (EFC);
This report is the most comprehensive study to date into support for environmental initiatives provided by European philanthropic foundations. It builds on the three earlier editions, increasing the number of foundations and grants being analysed, along with the total value of these grants.
This 4th edition features a detailed analysis of the environmental grants of 87 European public-benefit foundations, as compared to 75 in the previous edition. These 87 foundations include many of Europe's largest providers of philanthropic grants for environmental initiatives.
