WRI Receives $750,000 Grant for Climate Policy Research from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

WRI is one of six organizations that will receive grants to deliver analysis and recommendations on different approaches to tackling climate change.As part of the first round of grants from its $100 million Climate Change Initiative, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) today announced that the World Resources Institute (WRI) is one of six organizations that will receive grants to deliver analysis and recommendations on different approaches to tackling climate change through government policy.

The foundation is awarding a two-year grant of $750,000 for work by WRI’s Climate and Energy Program in three areas.

The first is to demonstrate the need for a mandatory federal greenhouse gas registry that is consistent with global greenhouse gas accounting standards. Such a registry will provide the foundation for measuring and tracking major emission sources and will be the basis for a federal cap-and-trade program.
The second is to inform the debate regarding various climate policy design elements through the production of issue briefs and communication efforts.
The third is to identify ways to integrate climate impacts and opportunities into the national energy security debate.

“We are grateful for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s investment in our work,” said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute. “The time has come for national policies that protect the climate, support innovation, create jobs, and make America more secure.”

Putting a price on carbon and developing a new international agreement that encourages nations like the U.S. and China to participate are the primary objectives in the first of three climate strategies DDCF will be supporting. The second strategy, which will receive the bulk of the funds from the initiative, will be to identify and promote policies that accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, particularly technologies related to energy efficiency, renewable energy and low-emission uses of coal. The third strategy will be to advance efforts to assess the likely effects of climate change and identify adjustments that can be made to lower the impact of those effects on people and the environment.

“In the immediate term, one of the most important things we can do to combat the threat of climate change is to design and implement the best possible pricing policies for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” said Dr. Joan Spero, president of DDCF. “This type of analytical work matters not only for the domestic policy debate, but also is essential for constructing an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.”

Jonathan Pershing, director of WRI’s Climate and Energy Program, added, “The grant will fund key elements of our climate work, supporting a team that is working with business, government and the international community to reduce climate change. The analytic team will be releasing a series of timely issue briefs and in-depth analyses to inform emerging climate and energy policy.”

WRI provides guidance to policymakers on climate change technology, business engagement, policy design, and international issues with designs on practical and sustainable results for both development and the environment. For more information on WRI’s climate results, please go to www.wri.org/climate/about.cfm.

The foundation awarded grants totaling $3.6 million to researchers from two universities - Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology - and four nonprofit organizations - Environmental Defense, The Pew Center on Climate Change, Resources for the Future, and WRI.

For more information on the grants, please go to www.ddcf.org.

The World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) is an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit organization with a staff of more than 100 scientists, economists, policy experts, business analysts, statistical analysts, mapmakers, and communicators developing and promoting policies that will help protect the Earth and improve people’s lives.

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The goal of the foundation’s Climate Change Initiative is to help build a clean energy economy through the pursuit of three strategies: designing optimal pricing policies, including international agreements, for greenhouse gases; identifying policies that accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies; and advancing efforts to assess the likely effects of climate change and lower the impact of those effects on people and the environment.