Faculty Exploratory Research Grants

Development of a Database and Website for State-Level Global Change Policy

J.E. "Ed" de Steiguer, Professor, School of Natural Resources

Grant: $9,875

The purpose of this interdisciplinary project is to develop a database and establish a website that will be used to document state laws and policies designed to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Relatively recently, individual states began drafting bills, passing legislation, and issuing executive orders related to global climate change issues, but virtually nothing exists on the status of the states’ activities. The objective of the project is to gather information from each state on policies related to global climate change that have been ordered or adopted, or that failed to become law.

Researchers will summarize the key parts of the policies and bills according to a set of common criteria. For example: are greenhouse gases regulated and, if so, which ones? What civil or criminal penalties are in place for violation of the law? Is carbon emissions trading established? Is scientific global change research funded?

The information, once gathered, will be put into an access database. The long-term goal is to provide this information to the public on a website. Environmental non-governmental organizations, state and federal lawmakers, students, professors, researchers, private sector groups, carbon trade exchanges, state and federal agencies, and others with an interest in global change policy will find the database useful.

The researchers will pursue federal funding to further analyze the information gathered. Also, given the very dynamic nature of state legislation, such a database will require constant updating.

Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, Arizona Research Laboratories

The University of Arizona

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