On the Issues: Earth Day and Plastic Waste, Pause on Liquefied Natural Gas, and More

A ban on single-use plastic bags in Lawrence, Kansas, will stand after the state’s governor vetoed legislation that would have repealed the ban. Lawrence joins more than 500 cities and 12 states that have passed laws to restrict single-use plastics. The general public seems to support such policies: 85 percent of respondents in a recent poll offered support for a ban on single-use plastics in a UN treaty on plastics that delegates will negotiate next week, which happens to align with this year’s Earth Day. “We have big hopes for this plastic treaty,” says Fernando Vidal, a postdoctoral researcher at the Polymat institute. Vidal joined an episode of the Resources Radio podcast to discuss technology and policy options that can help facilitate a more sustainable global plastics economy. “Changing the way that we make plastics clearly has the greatest impact on the overall carbon footprint for the plastic industry,” says Vidal. “We urgently need the use of renewable energy to power the plastic industry.”

Louisiana and 15 other states have sued the federal government over the recent move by the US Department of Energy to pause approvals on new facilities that export liquefied natural gas (LNG). The state plaintiffs assert that the pause exceeds the federal agency’s authority and damages state economies. The potential environmental and economic effects of the pause are elements of a more comprehensive story of the United States as the world’s leading exporter of LNG. In a new blog post, Resources for the Future (RFF) scholars examine the context for this pause, how US exports of LNG might shape outcomes at home and abroad, and the need for additional research to better inform decisionmakers. “The current lack of information makes it difficult to definitively answer some of the most straightforward questions on the topic,” the authors say, including the scale of domestic economic benefits of the pause, the distribution of those benefits, and whether a major increase of LNG exports would be a net benefit for the climate.

In 2023, China installed 217 gigawatts of new solar power—more than the capacity of all the solar power in the United States—and met the demand for new electricity with renewable energy for the first time. However, China continues to rely significantly on coal-fired power plants; the country needs to greatly increase its reliance on solar power and other renewable energy sources for the nation to meet its pledges for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. China has a plan to reduce emissions and complement its growing renewable energy capacity. A key part of the plan is implementing a nationwide tradable performance standard, an approach to climate policy that requires firms to reduce the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions to commercial output (e.g., amount of electricity or steel). In a new blog post, RFF University Fellow Lawrence H. Goulder and coauthors assess the benefits and costs of China’s tradable performance standard and its effects on emissions. China expects “that the tradable performance standard will contribute about half of the emissions reductions that will be needed to achieve [China’s goal of reaching] net-zero emissions by 2060,” say the authors.

Indigenous entrepreneurs and changes in federal government policy are accelerating clean energy development on Native American reservations. At the same time, some Native nations that rely heavily on fossil fuels face difficult questions about the future of those industries and the implications of a clean energy transition on local economies. On April 25, RFF will host a webinar exploring these questions and broader goals for economic development in Native American communities in the United States. RSVP to attend the webinar.

Aviation accounts for 2.5 percent of annual human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, and the sector’s carbon footprint is expected to grow: emissions from the sector have doubled since the 1980s, and demand for air travel potentially could triple by 2050. In a recent report, RFF Fellow Nafisa Lohawala and Zhiqing (Phoebe) Wen, a graduate student at Harvard University, examine technological solutions that could help make aviation more sustainable, challenges to implementing these solutions, and policy options for reducing emissions from aviation. “Strict aircraft emissions standards and research and development subsidies can drive innovation in design, pushing manufacturers to develop more environmentally friendly options,” say Lohawala and Wen.

Pollution from wildfire smoke is becoming more common in the United States, as wildfires increase in frequency and intensity. Air pollutants released during fires, especially particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, known as PM2.5, can have substantial negative effects on public health. In a new working paper, RFF Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer and Jacob Gellman, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Anchorage, examine the effects of PM2.5 and other negative effects of wildfire smoke and call for increased attention to the issue from US policymakers. “While much remains to be learned about damages from smoke … existing evidence suggests these damages are potentially even larger than direct damages from wildfires,” say Wibbenmeyer and Gellman. “Current federal policy is likely insufficient to address the issue of wildfire smoke.”