Paris Agreement

The Bipartisan Climate Solution: A Tax Swap

You wouldn’t know it from today’s polarized politics, but protecting the environment used to be a bipartisan effort.  There were, of course, the path-breaking conservation achievements of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican. And, in the 1970s through the 1990s major federal environmental legislation – the National Environmental Policy Act, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality, the Clean Air Act  and Clean Water Act  – occurred under Republican administrations in cooperation with Democratic Congressional leadership. 

Primary Forests Take Center Stage in Paris Climate Agreement

Following a fortnight of negotiations, an unprecedented agreement has been signed by all the world’s 196 nations which identifies forests and ecosystems as fundamental to the world’s climate change response. For the first time, the UN’s Paris Agreement has formally recognized in international law that conserving ecosystem-based carbon stocks including forests is central to achieving climate mitigation goals and that both biodiversity and human rights must be protected when taking climate action.
Photo Credit: Rockaway Youth on Banner by Flickr.com user Light Brigading

Cutting Back: IP Authors Reflect On Their Carbon Footprints

With the end of COP 21 and the signing of the historic Paris Agreement, it’s not just countries that are thinking about how to reduce emissions—individuals are reflecting on how their habits and actions impact climate change as well. Island Press authors shared what they’re doing to reduce their carbon footprints and, in some cases, what more they could be doing. Check out their answers and share your own carbon cutbacks—or vices—in the comments.