Fall 2024 - 60095 - PA 682GA - Policy Research Project on Global Policy Issues

Proposed Policy Research Project for Fall 2024

PA 682PGA (xxxxx): Can Austin Use Its Climate Plan to Improve Its Infrastructure and Public Services?

         Course Number      Graduate section: PA 682PGA (unique #: 60095)

                                          Undergraduate section: PA325 (unique #: 60005)

               Day & Time      Mondays, 6 to 9 pm

                       Faculty      David Eaton
Bess Harris Jones Centennial Professor of Natural Resource Policy Studies
LBJ School of Public Affairs

              Office/Phone      SRH 3.342; telephone: 512-626-6333

                        E-mail      eaton@austin.utexas.edu

              Office Hours      Tuesdays, 2pm-5pm, via phone. Please call 512-626-6333.

        Faculty Support      Crystal Arteaga

              Office/Phone      SRH 3.346; telephone: 512-232-4292

                       E-mail:      crystal.arteaga@austin.utexas.edu 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is a joint class between The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Hayama, Kanagawa, Japan, with graduate students and faculty from both Texas and Japan. The UT-Austin course will have a graduate section (PA682PGA, unique #:60095) and an undergraduate section (PA325, unique #: 60005) that will meet at the same time and in the same location, Monday nights from 6 to 8:50 pm in Austin, Texas and 9 am to 11:50 am in Japan. The LBJ School of Public Affairs (LBJ School) of The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) is cooperating with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) (based in Hayama, Japan) to investigate whether Austin, Texas can by implementing its Climate Equity Plan achieve co-benefits to improve its municipal infrastructure and municipal services.

In recent years, many cities have adopted net-zero or carbon neutral plans. Whether these plans achieve their stated ambitions remains an open question. One way to improve plan design, implementation and outcomes is integrating co-benefits into urban climate planning. ‘Co-benefits’ refer to benefits from actions that address climate change while meeting other essential development priorities. Co-benefits can include improved air quality, better health, enhanced mobility, affordable housing, improved parks, enhanced water, wastewater and drainage infrastructure, increased employment, etc. Co-benefits can demonstrate how additional development gains can offset the costs of climate action, allaying concerns that can weaken implementation. Co-benefits can similarly help align the interests of different government agencies and stakeholder groups around more integrated climate strategies. A clear understanding of co-benefits can also ensure that growing pools of climate finance will be allocated to meet core development needs. The concept of co-benefits of climate action plans already appeal to national governments as a rationale for climate plan infrastructure investments. Demonstrating co-benefits may be more influential in cities because development co-benefits are by definition more local, near-term and certain than climate benefits  and because cities tend to more innovative and flexible than national governments 

Climate co-benefits can strengthen city climate planning. They may also present those same governments with a challenge: cities may lack the resources to systematically estimate co-benefits and assess how policies with the greatest potential can be implemented effectively.  Simply stated, there may be tension between interest in and capacity to draw on co-benefits to drive implementation on the ground. The primary motivation for this project is to help Austin, Texas work with cities in Japan to address that tension. This project will employ three steps to achieve its goals: (a) Step 1: Estimate Co-Benefits of Austin’s Climate Equity Action Plan; (b) Step 2: Evaluate Implementation Barriers; and (c) Step 3: Convene Dissemination Workshops.

Step 1: Estimate the co-benefits of Austin’s Climate Equity Plan 

Austin, Texas adopted its Climate Equity Action Plan in September 2021. The plan sets ambitious greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) targets of a 52% reduction by 2030 with a view towards reaching negative emissions after 2040. Many proposed actions in the plan have potentially significant co-benefits, including reduced air and water pollution, increased employment, and improved access to social services, especially for the poor and disadvantaged. The Austin Climate Equity Plan mentions health-related co-benefits over 180 times. The Austin Plan refers to other development priorities, but does not describe co-benefit details, value, or community outcomes. The LBJ School and IGES have secured resources from the Wellcome Trust (a philanthropic organization based in the United Kingdom) to perform such an assessment for Austin, Texas and three cities in Japan (Kawasaki, Niigata, and Hachinohe). This Policy Research Project will use a diverse set of methods and models to quantify the magnitude of Austin Plan co-benefits. For example, one example would be to estimate how many disability adjusted life years (DALYs) can be reduced from Austin’s promotion of electric vehicles and compact planning. Table 1 lists some co-benefits and their relation to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Step 2: Analyse implementation barriers for key interventions in Austin’s Climate Equity Plan

Following quantification of co-benefits, the PRP research team will identify a core set of interventions which can enhance Climate Equity Plan outcomes. The team will identify barriers to implementing priority interventions through interviews with policy makers, knowledgeable business/nonprofit/university informants, as well as focus groups or key informant interviews on how Austin Plan implementation will assess technological, economic, social and institutional barriers. To illustrate, questions will be asked about the social acceptability of changing lifestyles or the institutional constraints on working across different divisions to align interests on climate and land-use planning. To complement focus groups or interviews, surveys will be distributed to policymakers to estimate how much barriers could delay implementation. Estimated delays can then used to illustrate poyential lost co-benefits from slow or ineffective implementation. The research team will then use focus groups and interviews to determine how barriers can be overcome. For example, how could inter-agency or inter-local cooperation raise awareness or align community interests to increase climate, health, and other co-benefits? IGES will use the insights from the Austin research and their own Japanese-based staff to applied similar methods in the three funded cities in Japan.     

Step 3: Organize policy dialogues and dissemination activities to inspire replication in other parts of the United States and Japan 

Following the completion of the analyses in Step 1 and 2, the PRP members and IGES staff will convene at least three dissemination events, one in Japan and two in the US. Course objectives

The course has five objectives:

1. To familiarize students with important development in international processes involving climate change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
2. To introduce the concept of co-benefits that lies at the intersection of these two processes
3. To learn how to use analytical tools to assess/quantify co-benefits or interlinkages between climate and SDGs in cities
4. To apply those tools to assess/quantify co-benefits in Paris
5. To evaluate barriers to implementing policies with significant co-benefits in Paris

The course will be organized into four working groups tasked with making use of different analytical tools for quantifying co-benefits in relation to Austin’s Climate Equity Plan :

1. Working Group 1-- Developing and tailoring SDG Interlinkages Tool (2 sub-components)

   1. Text analysis and coding of literature to determine which climate policies/actions have associated impacts on environment, health, and social equity

   2. Customizing the tool for City of Austin, including by reviewing relevant policies to understand needs and priorities of local authorities

2. Working Group 2—Quantifying mitigation benefits related to air pollution, climate change and health in collaboration with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

3. Working Group 3—Quantifying adaptation benefits related to avoided heat stroke 

4. Working Group 4—Quantifying renewable energy co-benefits related to health and employment