Faculty Research Highlight - UH Manoa DURP - Summer 2022
This UH Manoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning Faculty Research Highlight piece focuses on articles that were recently published by Dr. Makena Coffman and her colleagues. Dr. Coffman serves in a dual capacity as UH Manoa's Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience and a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Her articles focus on carbon pricing and sea level rise response in our state. Additional information on the articles as well as Dr. Coffman's background and research interests are included below.
Dr. Coffman's articles can be accessed via the hyperlinks below. Readers may also direct questions to Dr. Coffman by contacting her at makenaka@hawaii.edu.
Economic and GHG impacts of a US state level carbon tax: the case of Hawai‘i
By Makena Coffman, Paul Bernstein, Maja Schjervheim, Sumner La Croix, and Sherilyn Hayashida
In the absence of sustained federal leadership to address climate change, many US states and cities have implemented their own climate policies. In 2018, the State of Hawai‘i set a goal of sequestering more greenhouse gases (GHGs) annually than emitted no later than 2045. This study builds a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to understand how a state-level carbon tax in Hawai‘i could contribute to meeting this objective and how it would change household welfare for five different income groups. Against a baseline of existing federal and state GHG- related policies, we find that if Hawai‘i were to adopt a carbon tax at the level of the 2021 federally-specified social cost of carbon, Hawai‘i’s cumulative emissions would decline by an additional 10% from 2025 to 2045. Changes in group welfare depend heavily on whether carbon tax revenues are paid to households as equal-share dividends or used for increased state spending. If revenues are returned to households, the tax is progressive and benefits the average household in all five income groups. This is primarily because visitors pay the carbon tax while on a Hawai‘i vacation; their contributions amount to approximately one-third of collected revenues. Our findings are relevant to tourism-intensive regions, economies with demand-inelastic GHG-intensive export sectors, and island economies.
Managing for diverse coastal uses and values under sea level rise: perspectives from Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi
By Leah L. Bremer, Makena Coffman, Alisha Summers, Lisa C. Kelley, William Kinney
Effective and equitable coastal decision-making under sea level rise (SLR) requires managing for multiple coastal uses and values. This study explores how coastal decision-makers in Hawaiʻi perceive diverse uses and values of beaches and coastlines to be important and how they see recognition of these uses and values ideally shaping SLR response. We conducted 42 interviews and 37 surveys with representatives from government, private, and civil society organizations involved with coastal decision-making across the state. To understand how perspectives change based on localized contexts, we grounded our conversations around three socio-ecologically distinct communities on the island of Oʻahu: Kaʻa‘awa, Sunset Beach, and K¯ahala. We found broad agreement across decision-maker groups and sites in the perception that current coastal management decisions prioritize private and monetary (particularly real estate) values over diverse social and ecological values, often to the detriment of beaches and coastal communities. Though participants generally agreed on the need for new policy and man- agement approaches that promote protection of relational and other non-monetary values of beaches to diverse communities, interviewees held markedly different perceptions over whether, and the extent to which, sustaining beaches under SLR necessitates tradeoffs in maintaining private property claims. Results highlight the impor- tance of approaching SLR adaptation with an appreciation of multiple and place-based uses and values; and of developing processes to build a shared understanding among distinct actor groups and value systems of the tradeoffs inherent in SLR response.
Makena Coffman
Dr. Coffman serves in a dual capacity as the Director for the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience and a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Her interests include greenhouse gas reduction strategies; renewable energy planning and policy; low-carbon transportation; and sea level rise response. She specializes in regional economy-environment modeling with expertise in energy and climate policy. Her current research assesses energy planning and regulatory mechanisms to help Hawai‘i and the U.S. meet their clean energy goals, including low-carbon transportation options, as well as research on the economic and social impacts of sea level rise in Hawaiʻi. Dr. Coffman is a Research Fellow with the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.