“We really have to have in place across the industrialised world the agreements and the measures that are going to enable us to peak [global emissions] no later than 2015 … and if you want those things to be in place no later than 2012, we really should get it done in Copenhagen. That’s the schedule.”

John Holdren, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of directors to serve as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was quoted in “US is a Dead Weight on Copenhagen Talks, Pulling Down Ambition ever Lower,” which the Guardian published on November 17, 2009.

For the full article, go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/17/us-copenhagen-barack-obama

“China realizes that it faces a significant energy problem that could have severe impacts on their economy.”

Henry Lee, director of the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program and a member of the Center’s board of directors, was interviewed on “China Pledges Climate Change Action,” which the BBC aired on September 23, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/09/090923_climate_wt_sl.shtml

“If they don’t start doing that this week, it’s hard to imagine being able to have enough time to get through all the contentious issues and come out of Copenhagen with an agreement.”

Kelly Sims Gallagher, a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, was interviewed in “Clock Is Ticking on Copenhagen Climate Treaty,” which NPR’s “Morning Edition” aired on September 22, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113036276
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Gallagher was also interviewed in “Climate Change Meeting,” which PRI’s “The World” aired on September 22, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.theworld.org/2009/09/22/climate-change-meeting/

China’s Active Climate Policy Thread of Hope to Copenhagen Talks
China Radio International online
September 23
Quoted: Kelly Sims Gallagher and Robert Stavins, Belfer Center
Topic: China’s environmental policy

Kelly Gallagher, senior associate of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, said, “China’s new plan to set a domestic greenhouse gases intensity target is very intriguing.”

“It’s clear from President Hu’s speech that serious consideration is now being given to domestic policy in China. Let’s hope that the U.S. Senate is equally serious,” Gallagher, who also teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told Xinhua in an email interview. …

U.S. President Barack Obama also addressed the summit prior to Hu’s speech. Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, said there was a remarkable consistency between the remarks of the two presidents on global climate change policy.

“Obama’s offer to work constructively with his colleagues at the G20 (meeting in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh) to phase out fossil fuel subsidies fits perfectly with Hu’s call for ‘achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes’,” said Stavins, professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

“China and the U.S. are the two most important nations in terms of the global climate, so progressive actions by these two countries are key,” he told Xinhua in an email interview.

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“In my judgement, the most important thing to get done right now in the US is to get legislation passed that has a cap-and-trade mechanism in it, which, of course, will be adjusted over time. Those adjustments are likely to make the targets more ambitious.”

John P. Holdren, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of directors to serve as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was interviewed in “America Turns Red, White, and Green,” which was published by the New Scientist on August 1, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327191.200-interview-america-turns-red-white-and-green.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

“The need to restrain climate change to a level with which affordable adaptation measures can plausibly cope is what has led so many analysts of this problem to conclude that every effort should be made to avoid exceeding a global average temperature increase of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — that is two degree Celsius — above the pre- industrial level.”

John Holdren, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of directors to serve as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on “The Role of Agriculture and Forestry in Global Warming Legislation” on July 22, 2009.

To read his full testimony, see the attached PDF.

“They need government intervention and subsidies to help deploy them on a large scale.  We will not be able to learn and reduce their costs.”

Mohammed Al-Juaied, a former visiting scholar with the Belfer Center’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, was quoted in E&E News’ “Climate: Coal Plants with CCS Likely to be Competitive with Low-carbon Sources,” which featured the Belfer Center report “Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture.”

For the full article, go to: http://www.eenews.net/login (login required)
For the full report, go to: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19185/

The Financial Times featured the report in “Carbon capture and storage gets a good rap from Harvard,” which it published on its blog, “energysource,” on July 21, 2009.
For the full article, go to: http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2009/07/21/carbon-capture-and-storage-gets-a-good-rap-from-harvard/

This report was also featured in “Clean Coal: Competitive Someday, Just Not Today,” which the Wall Street Journal published on their blog, “Environmental Capital,” on July 20, 2009.
For the full article, go to: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/07/20/clean-coal-competitive-someday-just-not-today/tab/print/

“I would like to see uranium enrichment round the world put under international control.”

John P. Holdren, on leave from the Belfer Center’s Board of Directors to serve as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was quoted in “Washington to Host Nuclear Talks,” which was published by the Financial Times on July 10, 2009.

For the full article, go to: http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=836079

“I don’t think that there’s any silver bullet.  I think we’re going to need to do a little bit of everything as fast as we can in order to adequately address the climate change threat.”

Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, was quoted in “Countries Betting Tech Can Clean Up Coal,” which CNN published on July 13, 2009.

For the full article, go to: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/13/carbon.capture.storage/index.html

John P. Holdren, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of directors to serve as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was inducted into the Royal Society today, July 10, 2009. In announcing his selection, the Royal Society hailed Holdren as “pre-eminent in the fields of science and technology policy,” adding that “his contributions to our understanding of energy technology and the population-resource-environment nexus have justifiably received wide acclaim.”

The Royal Society is an independent, charitable body, founded in 1660 by a dozen of the world’s then-greatest “natural philosophers,” including the astronomer-mathematician-physicist Christopher Wren and the chemist Robert Boyle.

For the full announcement, go to: http://ostp.gov/galleries/press_release_files/Royal%20Society%20Event%20PR%20FINAL.pdf

Holdren met with science policymakers in the U.K. prior to the induction ceremony to discuss climate change. For more, go to: http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/07/holdren_meets_the_brits.html