Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
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Item From City Streets to Statewide Sustainability: Assessing the Impact of New York City's Residential Curbside Composting Program on Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Potential for Statewide ExtensionElizabeth S. Taber (2024-05)New York City's residential curbside composting program, initially piloted in Queens, is set to expand citywide. The initiative attempts to address the significant methane emissions linked to landfilling food scraps by embracing alternative management methods such as composting and anaerobic digestion. This research assesses the potential impact of implementing a composting program modeled off of New York City’s program in each municipality in NYS. It first considers whether NYC’s curbside composting program has effectively reduced the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste through increasing the quantity of waste redirected from landfill disposal. Then, analysis of the city’s program is then used to consider the potential impact of the municipal food scrap recycling program on greenhouse gas emissions in the remainder of New York State. To evaluate the program's effect on greenhouse gas emissions, this study designs an evaluation methodology based on the availability of food scrap recycling facilities, emissions associated with transporting waste to recycling facilities, municipal population, and diversion rates. These measures provide insight into expansion and efficacy barriers in the area outside of NYC. Ultimately, this research seeks to determine if composting has the potential to become as integral to household habits and municipal policies as recycling has become.Item Intellectual Property Policy and the Effectiveness of International Vaccine Distribution During the Covid-19 PandemicMegan Hong (2024-04-15)The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is the primary multilateral legal agreement used to outline international intellectual property rights. During past global health emergencies, such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, TRIPS was invoked to allow pharmaceutical treatments to become accessible to lower income countries through intellectual property flexibilities, such as compulsory licensing. However, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, TRIPS was not invoked for the distribution of newly developed vaccines. Rather, vaccine courses were distributed to countries through multilateral agreements with manufacturers, donations, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), or the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT). In this research, vaccine distribution to countries of varying income level by population coverage were observed and evaluated to determine whether these methods of delivery were successful in replacing the TRIPS flexibilities. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including statistical analyses on correlations between population coverage, modes of vaccine delivery, and GDP per capita, the nuances of the tradeoffs between intellectual property protection for inventors and accessibility of life-saving inventions to civilians were investigated. Research findings suggest that the implemented vaccine delivery systems used during the COVID-19 pandemic were not effective in securing equitable access to the vaccines, calling into question whether implementing TRIPS flexibilities would have allowed for greater access to certain populations.Item Comparative Analysis of Immigration Law: The Politics and Polarization of U.S. and Italian Systems, 2015-PresentJason Gordon (2024-05-17)The political systems of Italy and the United States allow for varying levels of discretion in passing exclusionary immigration policies. These policies have attempted to detain larger numbers of migrants, along with passing integration policies that place a large burden on migrant populations to assimilate in inflammatory political atmospheres. The role of the news media in injecting opinion into the political process, and influencing public opinion, remains an enduring feature of the immigration systems of both countries. Work exploring the role of media, and political structures, in influencing immigration policy is divided in understanding if media influences politics or the reverse. This paper explores how the media unified a largely decentralized Italy to unite against what are seen as foreign migration threats, and how a bipartisan American system creates a healthy debate in regards to immigration policy, that largely circumvents the influence of politicized media.