The Center informs and educates future environmental leaders, while promoting innovative technologies, policies and practices in order to strengthen environmental, energy, climate, sustainability and environmental justice practices.
The Center for Environmental Policy, American University School of Public Affairs, presented the William K. Reilly Awards for Environmental Leadership to George McGraw, Founder and CEO of DigDeep, and Environmental Justice Pioneer, Vernice Miller-Travis on April 17, 2024.
Co-sponsored by the WCL Program on Environmental and Energy Law and E&W Law.
The Center for Environmental Policy, in partnership with ICMA, the World Resources Institute and the Security and Sustainability Forum convened the “Inflation Reduction Act: Climate and Energy Progress and Opportunities" symposium at ArentFox Schiff on March 21. Speakers focused on the ways in which communities of all sizes and in all locations are working towards a clean energy transformation and climate resilience. 
Keynote speaker Tonantzin Carmona, Senior Advisor for Policy and Implementation at the Department of Treasury discussed elective pay, the innovative tool that allows local governments and nonprofits to take advantage of IRA benefits quickly and with limited red tape. She outlined the criteria and avenues for accessing federal tax credits using elective pay.
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Co-hosted by CEP, this one day event matches water startup founders & entrepreneurs, investors & funders, clients & entrepreneur support organizations throughout North America and around the world to advance innovative solutions for water challenges.
Alternative Tuesdays February-May 2023 at 1pm EST
This webinar series, sponsored by American University’s Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) and the not-for-profit think tank Energy Innovation, reframes causes and solutions of climate change as “sectoral” issues. Over six 75-minute webinars, experts introduced the problem and presented the challenges and successes of efforts to cut emissions in the energy, industry, transportation and buildings, and land use sectors. The final session featured a roundtable discussion on possibilities for implementing a more “sector-based” analysis to complement extant theories of change in the climate mitigation space.
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In this installment of the Ideas, Interests, Institutions, and Nation-state Climate Politics Series: Mitigators, Adapters, and Mitigator-Adapters series, Joa
Presenters will share the main policies implemented in the country’s major emitting sectors, and the potential and limitations of the national climate change adaptation plan as well as the challenges to its implementation. Focusing on the 2013-2021 period, presenters will discuss the policies implemented in the country’s major emitting sectors, the potential and limitations of the national climate change adaptation plan as well as the challenges to its implementation.
Center Director Dan Fiorino chatted with Tom Jorling, who served on the Minority Counsel for the Senate Committee on Public Works that produced the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972. Participants learned about the factors that contributed to the passage of landmark US environmental laws, the roles of various stakeholders in the process, and whether and how such environmental progress could be achieved again.
Watch the second event from the webinar series "Ideas, Interests, Institutions, and Nation-state Climate Politics: Mitigators, Adapters, and Mitigator-Adapters," featuring Professors Claire Dupont, Dave Huitema, and Lisa Dellmuth on the European Union’s declaration that it is a global leader on climate change and its dual leadership role that includes implementing climate mitigation policies domestically while engaging in climate diplomacy internationally to encourage, persuade, coerce, and assist others to adopt similarly ambitious climate mitigation policies.
This chapter explored the political, economic, and technical contradictions in China’s approach to reducing emissions. We demonstrated that while China has made many strides toward decarbonization, its recent energy and emissions trends and its near-term targets are insufficient to meet global climate stabilization goals that avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. As a result, we discussed opportunities for increased action on mitigation and continued international engagement with China on climate change.
Thursday February 4, 2021 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm EST
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This event was featured a conversation about opportunities for the Biden-Harris Administration to advance climate action and the promise of the Clean Air Act - healthy air for all communities. On this virtual panel we heard the perspectives of an environmental justice leader, a state air regulator, a legal expert and a utility industry official. In order to ensure healthy air, immediate action on climate change is critical. In this discussion, subject matter experts explored ways the Administration can help to deliver equitable and health-focused climate solutions by supporting full implementation of the Clean Air Act, improving air quality monitoring technologies and reporting, fostering the growth of clean, non-combustible energy and low-emission and zero-emission vehicles, and other promising approaches.
This event was hosted by The American Lung Association and American University's Centers for Environmental Policy and Environmental Filmmaking
Each year, the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee on the Structure of Governance sponsors the Levine Prize, named in honor of Charles H. Levine, an acclaimed member who served on the editorial board of its official journal, Governance. A distinguished committee awards the prize to the best book on comparative administration or public policy published in the previous year.
This year’s committee has selected “A Good Life on a Finite Earth: The Political Economy of Green Growth,” by CEP Director Daniel J. Fiorino, as the 2019 recipient of the Levine Award.
This video history, produced by the Center for Environmental Policy, honors William K. Ruckelshaus, for his tenure as EPA Administrator and his many contributions to federal, state, and local environmental governance.
This video history, produced with support from the EPA Alumni Association, honors William K. Reilly’s tenure as EPA Administrator and his many contributions to federal, state, and local environmental governance.
Faculty
Daniel Fiorino, distinguished executive in residence at the American University School of Public Affairs, argues that policymakers need to protect the environment if they want the economy to grow in the long-term.
In his new book, A Good Life on a Finite Earth: The Political Economy of Green Growth, which was published in December by Oxford University Press, Fiorino links academic research with policy analysis.
by Paul Billings and Dan Fiorino
Report on Lead Service Line Replacements
Read about this project by lead AU researcher Dr. Karen Baehler.
Our Future Depends on the Arctic
Read an opinion article written by Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Paul Bledsoe in the New York Times.
Don't fuel Donald Trump's culture war on climate change. Beat it instead.
Read an opinion article written by Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Paul Bledsoe in USA Today.
