Boston Tree Equity Analysis

Client: GreenRoots and Speak for the Trees

Authors: Tanya Stasio, PhD, Elisabeth Seliga, Elizabeth A. Stanton, PhD

Boston’s trees provide shade, cooling, and flood protection, and are an important tool for mitigating climate change impacts—like increased precipitation, sea level rise, and higher temperatures. The distribution of trees across and within Boston neighborhoods determines which communities benefit from these protections and which are left bearing the brunt of climate change impacts.

On behalf of GreenRoots and Speak for the Trees, Researcher Tanya Stasio, PhD, Assistant Researcher Elisabeth Seliga and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD examined the distribution of tree coverage, pollution, high temperatures, and socioeconomic disparities in the City of Boston in order to identify communities where tree planting efforts could offer the most equitable results.

AEC recommends that equitable tree planting efforts be concentrated in neighborhoods where there is both the greatest opportunity for planting trees in an otherwise tree scarce area and a high concentration of socially vulnerable populations: South Boston, East Boston, Dorchester, and Roxbury.

Link to Report

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“Measuring Climate Equity" at LIEN Annual Conference 2021

Event:
“Measuring Climate Equity" at the Low-Income Energy Network (LIEN) Annual Conference 2021

Speaker:
Sagal Alisalad

July 2021

AEC Assistant Researcher, Sagal Alisalad presented on “Measuring Climate Equity" at the Low-Income Energy Network (LIEN) Annual Conference 2021. Ms. Alisalad gave a primer on climate equity, described AEC’S climate and social equity framework, and introduced four types of metrics for climate equity: Outcome Metrics, Distributional Dimensions, Process Metrics, and Structural Metrics. This year’s LIEN conference focuses on Energy Equity: Using Energy Efficiency to Fight Energy Poverty in Canada.

Link to Presentation Slides

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Comments on 2021 Guidance Towards Updating the U.S. Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases

Client: Friends of the Earth

Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD, Chirag Lala, and Tanya Stasio

June 2021

Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD and Research Assistants Chirag Lala and Tanya Stasio prepared comments on the 2021 guidance towards updating the U.S. social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG) on behalf of Friends of the Earth.
AEC staff recommend that the current revision to the U.S. SC-GHG: (1) Estimate climate damages in a single model; (2) Include climate damages around the world; (3) Value for future climate impacts; (4) Place equal value on all people, all families, and all communities; (5) Set fair and effective emission reduction targets, and; (6) Have a clear process for updating the SC-GHGs over time.

Link to Comments

Link to News Release, Common Dreams

Link to News Release, Friends of the Earth

Link to News Release, Red, Green and Blue

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What the COVID-19 Pandemic Can Teach Us About Climate Justice

Authors: Sagal Alisalad, Eliandro Tavares, Tanya Stasio, and Myisha Majumder

February 2021

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had massive impacts on nearly all aspects of human life—from jobs to food security to healthcare. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted by this unprecedented health crisis as a result of preexisting socioeconomic and environmental disadvantages. Assistant Researchers Sagal Alisalad and Eliandro Tavares, and Research Assistants Tanya Stasio and Myisha Majumder prepared an AEC policy brief that focuses on the relationship between preexisting racial inequality and the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this brief, AEC finds a substantial overlap between vulnerability to COVID-19 and vulnerability to climate change. Much like the global climate crisis, some groups, especially Environmental Justice communities, are more likely to bear the brunt of the ongoing health crisis.

Link to Policy Brief

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Testimony on Washington Gas Light Company's 2020 Rate Case

Source: The Connection Newspapers

Client: Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia

Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD

August 2020

On behalf of the Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided Applied Economics Clinic expert testimony to Formal Case No. 1162 before the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. In her testimony, Dr. Stanton discussed Washington Gas Light Company's Application and rate proposals in the context of the CleanEnergy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 and other relevant climate and clean energy goals. Dr. Stanton's analysis found that Washington Gas failed to meaningfully address or support the District's climate-related goals, including emission reductions, in an equitable and cost-effective manner.

Link to Testimony

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Massachusetts Gas versus Massachusetts Climate Goals

Client: Gas Leak Allies

Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD, Bryndis Woods, Joshua Castigliego and Eliandro Tavares

December 2019

Prepared on behalf of Gas Leak Allies by Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, Researchers Bryndis Woods and Joshua Castigliego, and Assistant Researcher Eliandro Tavares, this Applied Economics Clinic policy brief demonstrates why Massachusetts cannot both continue to utilize gas for heating and meet legally mandated statewide emission reduction targets. There is a clear economic argument for focusing gas system investments on improving safety while transitioning away from gas to clean, highly efficient technologies as quickly as possible. Moving away from gas will make communities safer, save utility customers money, and meet the Commonwealth’s climate goals.

Link to Policy Brief

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Local Responsibility for a Global Problem: Juliana v. U.S. (In Memory of Frank Ackerman)

Liz Stanton, PhD

September 2019

On September 18th, 2019, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD spoke at Tufts University to celebrate the life and work of Frank Ackerman, one of the world's foremost experts on climate economics. Dr. Stanton remarked on Dr. Ackerman’s work on Juliana v. the United States, an ongoing case in which 21 kids are suing the U.S. government for knowingly failing to protect them from climate change. She said, "Frank would ask us—and ask the U.S. government—to weigh monetary costs against unmonetizable benefits. And to recognize when the only solution to a global problem requires the whole world’s participation, that reducing our moral responsibility to the isolated impacts of individual action is petty, specious, and really not the way anything important has ever gotten done in global history."

Read the full transcript of Dr. Stanton's speech, published in the Dollars&Sense and TripleCrisis blogs.

On Frank Ackerman:

In Memoriam, Frank Ackerman

Dr. Ackerman's Website

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Testimony on New Hampshire's Liberty Gas Supply Planning

Client: Conservation Law Foundation

Liz Stanton, PhD

September 2019

On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided Applied Economics Clinic expert testimony in Dockets 17-152 and 17-189 before the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. In her testimonies, Dr. Stanton addressed the need to evaluate the environmental impacts of new gas infrastructure as it relates to climate change. Her testimonies concluded that Liberty Gas’ least cost integrated resource plan fails to adequately address the climate change impacts of the Company’s planned expansion of gas.

Link to 17-152 Testimony

Link to 17-198 Testimony

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Risks Growing for India’s Coal Sector

Client: Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)

Authors: Bryndis Woods and David Schlissel (IEEFA)

September 2019

Researcher Bryndis Woods and Director of Resource Planning Analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) David Schlissel prepared a report that presents three major risks confronting India’s coal sector:

(1)   The over-building of coal-fired capacity. The boom in coal plant construction during the early 2010s has resulted in significant over-capacity. The amount of installed coal-fired capacity in India is now 20 percent higher than the country’s peak demand level and fully 50 gigawatts (GW) above average demand levels.

(2)   Increasing competition from renewable energy sources, particularly during the monsoon season. Low-cost renewable wind and hydro energy sources have a great advantage during the monsoon season, when coal generation dips while wind and hydro generation peak.

(3) Declining water supplies. Groundwater levels across India are in decline. Since 2012, both total annual rainfall and monsoon rainfall have generally been below normal levels ‒ a major concern for coal generation, which requires substantial amounts of water for steam production and cooling.

The report concludes that these risks are already manifesting, and will intensify in the years ahead. As a result, Indian policy makers should: agree not to built additional coal-fired plants; review plants under construction for possible cancellation; conduct an economic assessment of the nation’s oldest coal-fired power plants to determine their financial viability; and address coal capacity in the most drought-stricken as a priority.

Link to Report

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Social Equity Analysis of Carbon Free Boston

Client: Green Ribbon Commission

Authors: Bryndis Woods, Liz Stanton, PhD, and Applied Economics Clinic Staff

December 2018 - May 2019

In May 2019, Applied Economics Clinic worked together with All Aces and the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) at Boston University to produce Carbon Free Boston: Social Equity Report 2019 on behalf of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission (GRC). The report details how actions taken toward carbon neutrality, which will fundamentally transform the city’s buildings, transportation, waste and energy systems, will also affect socially vulnerable populations and provides a roadmap to equitably engage the City’s communities in climate action. The report finds that the path to carbon neutrality presents a unique opportunity to address historic inequities while creating a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous City for all those who live and work in Boston. Three themes defined the framework for the social equity analysis: 1) careful planning to avoid unintended consequences, 2) intentional design with a clear focus on equity outcomes, and 3) inclusive practices from start to finish in all decision making.

For more information, see Carbon Free Boston on The City of Boston’s website.

Link to Social Equity Report

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Clinic Director Liz Stanton Presents at WNE Law Symposium

Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD

October 26, 2018

Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD presented at the Western New England (WNE) Law Review Symposium on October 26, 2018. The Symposium aimed to facilitate conversation about how to build and reinforce smart, self-reliant and sustainable communities in the face of anthropocenic disruption. Dr. Stanton spoke about energy decisions made at the home, corporate, and regulatory levels.

Link to Presentation

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Climate Change, Imperialism, and Democracy: Questions and Answers with Liz Stanton

July/August 2017

Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD was interviewed in the July/August 2017 issue of Dollars & Sense Magazine addresses the ways that global climate change—and the unequal distribution of benefits and costs from greenhouse gas emissions—are related to global inequalities in wealth and power.

Link to Dollars & Sense Interview

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Triple Crisis Blog Posting: Casting Away Despair

April 2017

Author: Liz Stanton, PhD

Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD is transcribed in this blog post from when she gave a talk on climate change, politics and hope at a Brookline (MA) Climate Week event on April 1, 2017.

Link to Triple Crisis Blog Post

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