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Environmental Quality

Air quality and water quality are often adversely affected by heavy industry and the production and use of fossil fuels, but environmental interest groups, government officials, and the private sector frequently disagree on policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions. While most research has focused on the cost-effectiveness of proposed policies, RAND has also devised a new methodology to evaluate policies while balancing economic development with environmental quality concerns.

Multimedia
What Does Environmental Justice Look Like? Two Case Studies
The RAND Corporation has partnered with community organizations and activists in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and San Diego, California to show how community engagement can contribute to environmental justice for residents affected by neighborhood disinvestment.
Apr 19, 2023
Commentary
California's Ambitious Decarbonization Plan Hasn't Been Future-Proofed
California has an ambitious blueprint to make the state carbon-neutral by 2045. But there's been no integrated stress test of the whole plan. The state needs and deserves a future-proofed, stress-tested plan that all Californians can trust to achieve its climate goals.
Dec 15, 2022
Blog
Abortion Misinformation, Deepfakes, Environmental Racism: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on abortion misinformation in a post-Roe world, the threat of deepfakes, environmental hazards in historically redlined communities, and more.
Jul 8, 2022
Essay
Environmental Racism: How Historic Redlining Continues to Affect Communities
Starting in the 1930s, neighborhoods across America were redlined—marked on government maps as too hazardous, as in, too Black or too immigrant, for federal home loans. When zoning officials needed somewhere to put a new factory or freeway, those redlined neighborhoods were like a bullseye that they hit again and again.
Jun 27, 2022
Commentary
How Could the United States Incentivize Investors to Decarbonize the Economy?
While mandatory climate-related disclosure may improve information and decisionmaking for investors, it alone is unlikely to accelerate investment in decarbonization at the rate needed. To motivate private investment in climate mitigation, policymakers could explore additional policies.
May 12, 2022
Commentary
Amid Climate Change, These Tech and Policy Experts See Reason for Optimism
To slow climate change and adapt to the damage already underway, the world will have to shift how it generates and uses energy, transports people and goods, designs buildings, and grows food. That starts with embracing innovation and change.
Apr 18, 2022
Blog
Helping Ukrainian Refugees, Truth Decay, Algorithmic Inequity: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on how to help Ukrainian refugees, the link between cognitive processes and Truth Decay, tracking wastewater to understand the spread of COVID-19, and more.
Apr 1, 2022
Commentary
How We Might Better Live with Oil in California
As California grapples with the question of balancing environmental stewardship with the recent renewed focus on “local oil,” lawmakers could look to local communities for the best answers to avoid future petro-disasters.
Apr 1, 2022
Project
Environmental Racism
Past housing policies—such as redlining—have an enduring legacy on urban neighborhoods today, and have contributed to which communities enjoy more trees, less traffic, and better air quality, and which face hazards such as pollution, toxic waste sites, and flooding risk.
Mar 31, 2022
Tool
Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments
Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).
Mar 31, 2022
Report
Poor indoor climate: Its impact on health and life satisfaction, as well as its wider socio-economic costs
This study looks at the prevalence of poor indoor climate in Europe, its impact on health and well-being, as well as its wider socio-economic costs.
Mar 22, 2022
Project
Costa Rica's Carbon-Neutral Future
In her final piece for RAND Art + Data, Gabrielle Mérite brings one country's vision for a carbon-neutral future to life. Her designs are based on RAND research that analyzed the potential outcomes of Costa Rica's National Decarbonization Plan.
Feb 23, 2022
Blog
Addressing Anti-Asian Racism, Stabilizing U.S. Rivalries, the Debt-Ceiling Fight: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on countering anti-Asian racism, the instability of U.S. rivalries with Russia and China, the rise in extremist online activity, and more.
Dec 3, 2021
Blog
Measuring Greenhouse Gases in Los Angeles County
Los Angeles, once the U.S. capital of smog and sprawl, has vowed to lead the nation into a cleaner, greener future by stamping out carbon pollution. A small array of sensors installed on the roof of RAND's Santa Monica headquarters could help it get there.
Nov 30, 2021
Blog
Boosting Vaccine Acceptance, Afghanistan's Refugee Crisis, Environmental Racism: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on addressing vaccine hesitancy, preventing an even-bigger humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and how to develop antiracist environmental policies.
Sep 10, 2021
Q&A
Mapping Environmental Racism: Q&A with Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston
Environmental policy experts Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston are leading an effort to highlight how discriminatory policies have shaped environmental health disparities. Their goal: create an interactive map of the United States to motivate environmental policy that advances antiracism.
Sep 7, 2021
Periodical
RAND Review: September-October 2021
The cover story highlights strategies to mitigate homegrown terrorism and ideologically inspired violence in the U.S. A second feature describes Costa Rica's ambitious decarbonization plan and its implications for nations around the world.
Sep 7, 2021
Report
Developing the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response: An Opportunity to Reduce Risk and Impacts of Future Spills in Freshwater
In 2016, Congress directed the U.S. Coast Guard to establish the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response. This report makes recommendations for the center, its staffing, potential partnerships, and location.
Aug 31, 2021
Essay
Costa Rica Leads the Way in Cutting Carbon Emissions
Almost every country has pledged to slash carbon emissions to slow the gears of global warming. Costa Rica's plan provides a glimpse of what a carbon-neutral future will look like. It shows how nations can take action and make investments that hold up, regardless of what future comes to pass.
Aug 30, 2021
Journal Article
Data-driven Decision Support Tools for Assessing the Vulnerability of Community Water Systems to Groundwater Contamination in Los Angeles County
This research aims to develop an easy to deploy, data-driven method to identify community water systems that are vulnerable to drinking water quality degradation from groundwater contamination.
Jul 28, 2021

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Ramya Chari

Policy Researcher

Ramya Chari is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on environmental and social determinants of health, public health preparedness, occupational health and well-being, and environmental risk assessment. Chari has particular expertise in community-based participatory…
Craig A. Bond

Research Quality Assurance (QA) Manager, RAND Arroyo Center

Craig Bond is an applied microeconomist who specializes in natural resource and environmental economics, including stochastic dynamic modeling, resource valuation, consumer and producer choice, and applied welfare economics.

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