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A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by UC Berkeley economists. The report was released Friday, Oct. 19, at the World Bank's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Confusion reigns around biofuels such as ethanol, because some production methods can be worse for the environment than gasoline refining. A UC Berkeley group proposes a Green Biofuels Index to help consumers decide where to fill their tanks, and to spur a market for "green" biofuels.

Seeking a silver lining in the destruction wrought by last December's tsunami, a team of UC Berkeley students and professors spent a month in Thailand this summer working with local counterparts to design a strategic plan for developing sustainable tourism in southern Thailand's Krabi province.

A research team led by engineers at UC Berkeley has developed a new technique to handle metal defects in low-grade silicon, an advance that could dramatically reduce the cost of solar cells. Instead of removing the impurities — a difficult and costly process — the researchers leave them in but manipulate them to reduce their detrimental impact on solar cell efficiency.

At a time of soaring gas prices, public concern over the country's dependence on foreign oil, and mounting evidence of global warming, the nation's investment in energy research and development is declining, according to a report by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. In a paper in the journal Issues in Science & Technology, Dan Kammen, a UC Berkeley professor and co-director of the campus's Berkeley Institute of the Environment, and doctoral student Greg Nemet, marshal statistics to show that both the federal government and private business investments in energy research and development have declined significantly since the 1980s.

A new report led by UC Berkeley researchers finds that just eight policy strategies can take California halfway to the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 while increasing the Gross State Product by approximately $60 billion and creating more than 20,000 new jobs.

Forty-three top economists from across California are delivering a letter today, Monday, June 26, to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature urging them to move quickly to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Power companies are rushing to invest in new nuclear power plants, thanks to promised government subsidies, but a new study warns that unexpected costs often arise that may not make such plants a good financial investment.