Better data for assessing local climate policies

Geographic Data for Academic Research: Assessing Access Policies

Data availability is a key issue affecting the collective well-being of society. Economic and legal scholars have argued that the current, relatively open, access-to-data environment in the United States is beneficial to advancing knowledge and the economy. However, little empirical evidence exists to validate the extent to which various access policy environments do or do not contribute to the...

Think Globally, Act Globally: the Limits of Local Climate Policies

This Symposium has focused primarily on recent efforts by several states of the United States to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These state-level efforts include common law liability actions (such as public nuisance lawsuits) brought by several states against large GHG emitters.1 They also include states’ regulation of GHG emissions from mobile sources (such as California’s 2002 law r...

Guidelines for Assessing the Suitability of Spatial Climate Data Sets

Spatial climate data are often key drivers of computer models and statistical analyses, which form the basis for scientific conclusions, management decisions, and other important outcomes. The recent availability of very high-resolution climate data sets raises important questions about the tendency to equate resolution with realism. This paper discusses the relationship between scale and spati...

Assessing local vulnerability to climate change in Ecuador

Vulnerability assessments have become necessary to increase the understanding of climate-sensitive systems and inform resource allocation in developing countries. Challenges arise when poor economic and social development combines with heterogeneous climatic conditions. Thus, finding and harmonizing good-quality data at local scale may be a significant hurdle for vulnerability research. In this...

A Better Investment Climate for