University of Nebraska - Lincoln
EN-14: Participation in Public Policy

City of Lincoln Mayor's Environmental Task Force: Dave Gosselin, Director of the UNL Environmental Studies Department and co-chair of the Chancellor’s Environment, Sustainability, and Resilience Commission, sits on the Mayor of the City of Lincoln’s Environmental Taskforce at the direction of the UNL Chancellor's Office. This task force advises the Mayor on local environmental stewardship and sustainability policies and programs. This task force has working sub-committees and was a critical partner in the development of Resilient Lincoln's Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2021. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/projects-programs-amp-initiatives/resilient-lincoln/documents/climateactionplan.pdf

Lincoln Climate Smart Collaborative: Morgan Hartman, UNL Sustainability Coordinator, serves as the UNL representative on the Lincoln Climate Smart Collaborative at the direction of the UNL Chancellor's Office. The Climate Smart Collaborative was formed at the direction of the Mayor of the City of Lincoln to find opportunities for collaboration and connectivity to advance sustainability and climate action goals amongst the major public entities within the Lincoln community including the City of Lincoln, Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln Electric System, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The group meets monthly to identify topics within the Lincoln Climate Action Plan and individual sustainability master plans to seek out opportunities for collaboration through shared resources and/or best practice knowledge. The group is currently developing an Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan for the City of Lincoln to include electrification of fleets with a study prepared by a local engineering firm, funded equally by the four partners. The Collaborative, as well as the EV Readiness Plan, was publicly announced via a press conference in April 2022 where leaders of each Collaborative entity, including UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green, provided remarks and public support of the Collaborative and its initiatives.

Former University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds advocated for LB639: H3 Careers Scholarship Act. This Act would provide $60 million in scholarships for students in Nebraska to further their education in high-skill, high-demand, high-wage areas as determined by Nebraska’s Department of Labor. Supporting this legislation increased accessibility for Nebraskans to attend college that would not have been able to do so previously.
https://nebraska.edu/news-and-events/news/2019/nebraskas-sons-and-daughters-deserve-opportunities

UNL provided testimony in support of Senator Eliot Bostar’s bill LB630, to implement a pilot program to study the efficacy of commercial air filters in classrooms to remove common pollutants and particulate matter and their impact on academic and behavioral performance. https://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/107/PDF/AM/AM1261.pdf

In December 2016, LR 455 was submitted in the Unicameral to create the framework for a state climate action plan. Today this resolution is still in the legislature with climatologists from the University of Nebraska consistently meeting with Nebraska state senators on the impacts of climate change and what it will mean for Nebraska.

National Drought Mitigation Center: UNL's top federal appropriation priorities over the past three years have consistently included funding for the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) as well the U.S. Drought Monitor. The NDMC is based in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and established in 1995. The National Drought Mitigation Center’s mission is to reduce the effects of drought on people, the environment and the economy by researching the science of drought monitoring and the practice of drought planning. The NDMC collaborates and learns with decision-makers at all levels – individual ranchers, communities, regions, watersheds, tribes, states, countries – across the US and around the world. In January 2021, the NDMC launched a new three-year, $2.4 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture using funds secured by members of the Nebraska delegation. UNL was the lead advocate for this increased funding, which allows the NDMC to continue taking a leading role in the production, web hosting and distribution of the U.S. Drought Monitor. The Drought Monitor has triggered billions of dollars in federal aid and low-interest loans, including for the USDA Livestock Forage Disaster Program. Federal, state, tribal, local and basin-level decision makers use it to detect emerging droughts. The NDMC helps people and institutions develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability to drought, stressing preparedness and risk management. They have created a map for state policymakers to easily access their state's climate plan, drought plan, water plan, and general hazard plan. This map allows Congress members access to their state's plans to write policy for further action. The NDMC is supported by the University of Nebraska and its leadership, including Chancellor Ronnie Green, as one of the institution's highest federal priorities. Additionally, UNL's top federal priority for the upcoming Farm Bill is to seek a permanent authorization of $3.8 million per year to support these USDA risk management programs and related climate resilience efforts and to mitigate the effects of drought and related natural disasters on people, the environment and economy. See information about the NDMC's 2021 announcement of their USDA partnership and Chancellor Green's comments via the following link: https://drought.unl.edu/Publications/News.aspx?id=373.

In 2022, the National Drought Mitigation Center launched a new project funded by U.S Air Force Weather to develop a global drought indicator with an aim of predicting unrest in regions of the world. UNL worked with members of the Nebraska delegation and the U.S. House Appropriations Committee to secure the $2.869 million program increase needed to fund this program. In the first phase of work of the project, titled, 'Building a Global Composite Drought Indicator Hot Spot Early Warning and Information System', the NDMC will develop a global composite drought indicator, based on physical measurements of water availability such as precipitation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and vegetation health. The center has extensive experience working with countries around the globe to construct composite drought indices, based on which data is available and which sectors are most vulnerable. Socioeconomic indicators that describe vulnerability to drought will be incorporated as a next step. Additional information about the project can be found via the following links: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/drought-center-kicks-off-1-million-defense-project-to-predict-unrest/ ; https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-based-drought-center-expands-global-outreach/ . Additionally, the NDMC maintains a summary of their international efforts via the following linked webpage: https://drought.unl.edu/OurWork/International.aspx . Highlighted projects from 2021 include: Partnership between the World Bank and NDMC to work with the countries of the Southern African Development Community to enhance drought preparedness; The NDMC working with the United Nations’ Science-Policy Interface, with the Intergovernmental Working Group of the Convention to Combat Desertification, and with the Integrated Drought Management Programme with efforts centered on developing and recommending actionable policy measures to build and/or enhance resilience to drought, desertification and land degradation. More information can be found via the following link: https://drought.unl.edu/OurWork/International.aspx. The NDMC is supported by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and its leadership including Chancellor Ronnie Green as a top federal priority for the institution.