On the Issues: European Union Climate Policy, Dam Removals, and More

Mary Glavey, Matt Fleck, and Elizabeth Wason

Twice a month, we’re compiling the most relevant news stories from diverse sources online, connecting the latest environmental and energy economics research to global current events, real-time public discourse, and policy decisions. Keep reading, and feel free to send us your feedback. A quick note: the On the Issues team will give the newsletter a break during the week of Labor Day in the first week of September. We’ll return with the next newsletter, and our regular schedule, on September 20.

Here are some questions we’re asking and addressing with our research chops this week:

What does the future of climate policy look like in the European Union after the election of a new parliament earlier this summer?

Given the results of the elections for the European Parliament in June, climate legislation that was passed as part of the European Green Deal is likely to stay intact. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who won reelection in July, has indicated that she will stay the course on the clean energy transition in the bloc. Von der Leyen has emphasized the need to stay on track with the Green Deal and continue pursuing strong climate policy while protecting European industries. Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Milan Elkerbout discusses in a new In Focus video the prospects for EU climate policy following the June parliamentary elections. “Despite changes in the composition of the new European Parliament, there still is a broad consensus to continue strong climate policy in Europe over the next five years, even if the priorities might change a little bit,” says Elkerbout.

How can removing dams advance environmental justice for Indigenous communities?

The removal of four dams along the Klamath River, which runs through California and Oregon, is ahead of schedule. The removal project is expected to be completed in the fall and is a major step in a long process of rehabilitating the ecosystem that surrounds the river. A contractor has been working with crews from the local Yurok Tribe to restore creeks and tributaries in the river basin and revegetate the areas formerly occupied by the dammed reservoirs, which will be able to support wildlife. Amy Bowers Cordalis, cofounder and principal of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group and a member of the Yurok Tribe, discusses the significance of the river ecosystem to the Yurok people on a recent episode of the Resources Radio podcast. “Think of a vein that goes through your heart and then fuels your body and provides nutrients to your whole body. The river is like that for us,” says Bowers Cordalis.

Two years after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, what have been the effects so far of the nation’s largest-ever climate law?

Implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the landmark US climate law passed in 2022, continues to chug along. Over 3 million Americans used subsidies from the IRA for home upgrades in 2023, and $265 billion worth of clean energy projects have been announced since the passage of the law. Experts have projected that the law will accelerate the pace at which the United States reduces greenhouse gas emissions and push the country toward the national goal of achieving a net-zero economy by midcentury. “The IRA has made a lot of progress toward that goal,” says RFF Fellow Aaron Bergman. But a lot remains to be done, adds Bergman, who spoke with Catherine Wolfram—an RFF university fellow, member of the RFF board of directors, and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—about the future of climate policy after the IRA for an article in the most recent issue of Resources magazine.

Expert Perspectives

The United States has experienced myriad extreme weather events this summer, including heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods. Data show that these events are becoming more common as climate change intensifies. Margaret Walls, a senior fellow at RFF and director of RFF’s Climate Risks and Resilience Program, discusses the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the United States in recent decades.

Resources Roundup

A Higher Social Cost of Carbon

The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a measure of how much one additional ton of carbon dioxide pollution costs society. Typically, the SCC is estimated by treating each dollar of economic cost or benefit as the same regardless of the socioeconomic status of the people affected. A new article in the journal Science, coauthored by RFF Fellow Brian C. Prest, RFF University Fellow David Anthoff, and others, argues that using an approach that puts greater weight on the benefits and costs of emissions for low-income groups would increase the SCC by a factor of eight. “This large change in the SCC … owes to the fact that most of climate change’s global welfare impact will occur outside US borders, where most people have lower incomes than the median American,” say Prest, Anthoff, and coauthors.

Place-Based Policies Are Not Hitting the Spot

US policymakers increasingly have employed place-based policies to address poverty, environmental injustice, and other local economic issues. Yet, a quartet of recent federal place-based programs imprecisely target the communities that need the most support, according to new research by RFF scholars Daniel Raimi, Alexandra Thompson, and Zachary Whitlock. The researchers examine these four programs in a new article on the Common Resources blog. “If policymakers intend to use [place-based policies] to bolster disadvantaged communities, address environmental injustices, and ensure an equitable transition to a net-zero economy, they will need to target the right resources to the right places,” they say.

Exploring Partisan Divides on Climate and Energy Policy

Although a majority of Americans are in favor of stronger federal climate policy, increased partisanship in Congress has stymied the advancement of such policy. Several factors are responsible for this increased partisanship, according to David Spence, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Spence joined a recent episode of the Resources Radio podcast to discuss why climate and energy have become divisive topics in US politics, along with strategies to help build support among voters for climate action and temper polarization across the political spectrum. “All it takes is influencing a relatively small number of people to make a difference politically,” says Spence.

#ChartOfTheWeek

Data: Earth System Science Data. Chart: Thomas Oide / Axios

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires worldwide. In a new report, an international team of researchers analyze wildfires around the world that occurred between March 2023 and February 2024, including the causes and impacts of these fires. The fire season in Canada was especially devastating: emissions from fires in the country were nine times higher than in an average year and accounted for almost a quarter of the world’s total emissions from wildfires.

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