Resources Radio

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi speaks to Catherine Wolfram about the recently launched Open Coalition on Compliance Markets and how it can coordinate carbon pricing systems across national borders, inspire more and more countries to join, and ultimately reduce carbon emissions. Wolfram is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, the co–faculty lead of the Global Climate Policy Project at Harvard University and MIT, and a member of the Resources for the Future Board of Directors. She and coauthors recently published work on the Open Coalition, suggesting a viable framework for countries in the coalition to harmonize their domestic carbon pricing programs as they trade across borders, while raising government revenues and reducing carbon emissions. The authors’ spin on economist Bill Nordhaus’s original idea of climate coalitions (or “climate clubs”) involves low-income nations joining the coalition at a lower cost; Wolfram argues that coalition countries experience less friction with international trade and gain the advantage of revenues raised, with the downsides of implementing a carbon price much less than what’s commonly thought.

References and recommendations:

“Putting Climate Coalitions into Practice: A Common Framework for Balancing Competitiveness and Equity” by the Global Climate Policy Project (GCPP) Working Group on Climate Coalitions; https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/putting-climate-coalitions-into-practice-gcpp-report/

“Building a Scalable Climate Coalition for Heavy Industry” by Catherine Wolfram, Joseph Aldy, Candido Bracher, Gregory Casey, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Kimberly Clausing, Carolyn Fischer, Christian Gollier, Allan Hsiao, Frank Jotzo, Marcelo Medeiros, Kyle Meng, Athiphat Muthitacharoen, Axel Ockenfels, Mari Pangestu, Marilyn Pereboom, Arathi Rao, Ivan Rudik, Daouda Sembene, Naomi Shimberg, E. Somanathan, Dustin Tingley, and Jennifer Winter; https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef7190

“How Carbon Border Adjustments Might Drive Global Climate Policy Momentum” by Kimberly Clausing, Milan Elkerbout, Katarina Nehrkorn, and Catherine Wolfram; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/how-carbon-border-adjustments-might-drive-global-climate-policy-momentum/

“Putting Climate Coalitions into Practice: A Common Framework for Balancing Competitiveness and Equity” from the Global Climate Policy Project; https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/putting-climate-coalitions-into-practice-gcpp-report/

“Emissions Trading Worldwide: ICAP Status Report 2026” by the Internation Carbon Action Partnership; https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/publications/emissions-trading-worldwide-icap-status-report-2026

“Hooked” podcast series from Campside Media; https://www.campsidemedia.com/stories/hooked

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks about the future of clean transportation with Michael Berube in the Resources for the Future podcast recording studio. Berube is the president and CEO of Catalyst Mobility; he’s been leading the organization for the past year and has spearheaded a rebranding of the nonprofit organization, which aims to advance clean, equitable, affordable transportation solutions to move people and goods. His role at the nonprofit combines with experience he’s accumulated in previous positions as a US Department of Energy senior official, corporate executive, and engineer, enabling him to adroitly explore questions and projections regarding the road ahead for clean transportation. Hear what Berube and Hayes discuss about the influence of policy certainty on decisions made by auto makers and consumers, the importance of competing in the global market (rather than relying on national or regional markets), variation among countries and even among US states in electric vehicle adoption, and strategically applying demand pressure to create markets and motivate increased supply.

References and recommendations:

“Largest Electric Truck Order Will Nearly Double the US Electric Class 8 Fleet” press release from Catalyst Mobility; https://calstart.org/catalyst-mobility-and-smart-freight-centre-launch-zet-scale-program/

“The Architect of Modern China” episode of “The Rest Is History” podcast; https://therestishistory.com/episodes/the-architect-of-modern-china

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi speaks to Max Harleman, an assistant professor at Villanova University, about research on the positive economic impacts of environmental remediation. Half a million mining operations have been abandoned throughout the United States, and the tailings and runoff from those mines compromise waterways—from the small scale of creeks nearby to regional impacts on watersheds. Water that drains from mines acidifies surrounding waterways, killing organisms in the ecosystem and making the waters unattractive for fishing, boating, and swimming. Harleman’s recent research with colleagues combines interviews with locals and careful comparisons of stream conditions and communities; their findings qualitatively and quantitatively illustrate the value of environmental remediation and restoration, yielding actionable advice for policymakers. Evidence shows that dollars spent on remediation efficiently produce positive outcomes for communities in terms of population growth, property values, and even profits on short-term rentals. Hear more details by listening in.

References and recommendations:

“Waterway Restoration Helps Revitalize Mined Areas” by Jeremy G. Weber, Max Harleman, Aidan Semanco, Shawn McCoy, and Katie Jo Black; https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65f9f863036e7bbd0fc012f9/6a2040e263892ddd3e08ee27_REE%20Policy%20Brief%20-%20Weber%20et%20al.pdf

“Reversing Signals of Neglect: Legacy Pollution, Adaptive Governance, and Resilience in Historic Coal Communities” by Max Harleman, Jeremy G. Weber, Aidan Semanco, Katie Jo Black, and Shawn J. McCoy; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378026000828

“Environmental Hazards and Local Investment: A Half-Century of Evidence from Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells” by Max Harleman, Jeremy G. Weber, and Daniel Berkowitz; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/719383

“Gravity” by Jeremy Ledbetter Trio; https://www.jeremyledbetter.com/product-page/gravity-cd

“Yamaha” by Fazer; https://squamarecordings.com/release/yamaha

“Fasten Up” by Yellowjackets; https://www.yellowjackets.com/store-page/p/fasten-up-cd-yellowjackets-2025

Kermit Ruffins; https://www.basinstreetrecords.com/artists/kermit-ruffins/

Rebirth Brass Band; https://rebirthbrassband.com/

Jon Batiste; https://www.jonbatiste.com/

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Dan Baer, a senior vice president at the Washington, DC–based think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His role offers a vantage point for unique insights on how artificial intelligence (AI) may affect the think tank world and its research contributions. Baer elaborates on some “emergent intuitions” that he articulates in a recent article published by Carnegie, in which he reckons with an AI world that’s newly emerging but nonetheless demands deep consideration of old philosophical foundations. Baer describes how AI may change the approach that research institutions take—and may need to take—moving forward.

References and recommendations:

“Mission over Model: What Might AI Mean for an Organization Like Carnegie?” by Dan Baer; https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2026/08/artificial-intelligence-ai-technology-research-think-tanks

“The End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man

“The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek” by Andrew Durbin; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374609559/thewonderfulworldthatalmostwas/

“Terra Incognita: The Economics of a Shrinking World” by Jesús Fernández-Villaverde and Patrick Norrick; https://www.nber.org/papers/w35809

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

In this episode, Daniel Raimi talks with Susanna Berkouwer about their research on reducing the economic and environmental costs of energy access through a simple piece of technology: charcoal-burning cookstoves. Access to electricity is limited in low-income countries, which means that access to clean cooking in those countries is limited, too. Some areas of the world have shifted to using liquefied petroleum gas for their cooking, but Sub-Saharan Africa is trending toward higher use of biomass-burning cookstoves, which produce emissions that can harm human health and lead to local or regional deforestation. An assistant professor in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Berkouwer and their colleagues applied a randomized experimental design with 1,000 households in Sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to see whether alternatives to charcoal-intensive cookstoves can reduce both the cost of energy and the negative environmental impacts. The conclusions are strong and striking: Corroborating results show that improvements in cookstove efficiency come with more efficient biomass use and cost savings, and the fiscal cost of subsidizing cookstoves is hundreds of times more efficient than other means of decarbonization. Berkouwer’s randomized study quantifies these gains in cost-efficiency, reductions in environmental pollution, and potential policy redundancies, opening up space for new climate solutions.

References and recommendations:

“The Cost-Effectiveness of Clean Cookstove Carbon Mitigation After Adjusting for Additionality and Impact” by Susanna B. Berkouwer and Joshua T. Dean; https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010007826500089

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/