Technical Working Group on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG)
Packard Foundation Awards Grant to Duke-led Group for Work on Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
Contact: Lydia Olander, 919/613-8709, lydia.olander@duke.edu
October 19, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University has received a $628,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to establish the Technical Working Group for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG).
The Packard Foundation grant will fund a two-year initiative by T-AGG to conduct a transparent, scientifically based review of greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. For the best of these opportunities, the team will then develop the analytical background necessary to assess and initiate the development of high-integrity methodologies.
The team’s findings will be published by the Nicholas Institute in a series of technical reports with executive summaries for stakeholders and decision makers. The project will begin in October 2009 and be completed by mid 2011.
“Our goal is to provide the scientific and analytical foundation needed for high-quality market, state and federal agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation strategies in the United States, and begin to assess the next steps for international agriculture as well,” says Lydia Olander, senior associate director of ecosystem services at the Nicholas Institute.
“This will be done with significant expert and practitioner input,” Olander stresses. “Ongoing stakeholder engagement with farm groups, policy makers and other key constituents is a priority.”
Charles W. Rice, University Distinguished Professor of Soil Microbiology at Kansas State University, and Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change and Professor of Biology at Duke and director of Duke’s Center on Global Change, will collaborate with T-AGG team members at the Institute.
The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions provides nonpartisan research and analysis to key stakeholders on energy and climate policy issues. For more information, go to www.nicholas.duke.edu/institute.
The Packard Foundation, established in 1964, is a family foundation that works to help improve the lives of children, enable the creative pursuit of science, advance reproductive health, and conserve and restore the Earth’s natural systems. For more information, go to http://www.packard.org/home.aspx.
