Robert N. Stavins

AP Photo

Spring 2010

"Scholars' Views Vary on Copenhagen Successes"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

"Belfer Center participants in the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (UNFCCC) agreed that while the summit did not produce the treaty most wanted, it did make some significant progress. They disagree, however, on how much. Professors Jeffrey Frankel, Kelly Sims Gallagher, and Robert Stavins, all members of the Belfer Center Board of Directors, offer their takeaways from the event."

December 10, 2005

Don't Blame Romney

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

January 2013

Economics of Climate Change and Environmental Policy: Selected Papers of Robert N. Stavins, 2000–2011

Book

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Professor Robert Stavins, Harvard Project Director, recently published the second volume of his collected papers with Edward Elgar Publishing. The 26 essays in the volume cover a wide range of topics, including: environmental policy analysis; economic analysis of environmental policy instruments; economics and technical change; natural resource economics — land and water; and domestic and international climate change policy. The first volume of Professor Stavins' papers was published in 2000 — also by Edward Elgar — covering the period 1988–1999.

AP Photo/John Giles

July 2012

"Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems"

Discussion Paper

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Matthew Ranson

The outcome of the December 2011 United Nations climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, provides an important new opportunity to move toward an international climate policy architecture that is capable of delivering broad international participation and significant global CO2 emissions reductions at reasonable cost. This paper addresses an important component of potential climate policy architecture for the post-Durban era: links among independent tradable permit systems for greenhouse gases.

November 29, 2011

"Climate Change: Efficiency and Equity"

Presentation

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Director Robert N. Stavins delivered a presentation titled "Climate Change: Efficiency and Equity," at The Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 29, 2011. The talk was one in the Geneva Environmental Dialogue Series of public keynote lectures that the Institute holds annually on a theme related to the international environment. The theme for the 2011–2012 term is "Justice and the Environment."

AP Photo

November 2011

The Promise and Problems of Pricing Carbon: Theory and Experience

Discussion Paper

By Joseph E. Aldy, Faculty Affiliate, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Because of the global commons nature of climate change, international cooperation among nations will likely be necessary for meaningful action at the global level.  At the same time, it will inevitably be up to the actions of sovereign nations to put in place policies that bring about meaningful reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases.  Due to the ubiquity and diversity of emissions of greenhouse gases in most economies, as well as the variation in abatement costs among individual sources, conventional environmental policy approaches, such as uniform technology and performance standards, are unlikely to be sufficient to the task.  Therefore, attention has increasingly turned to market-based instruments in the form of carbon-pricing mechanisms.  We examine the opportunities and challenges associated with the major options for carbon pricing:  carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, emission reduction credits, clean energy standards, and fossil fuel subsidy reductions.

April 25, 2011

"An Opportunity for Timely Action: EPA's Transport Rule Passes the Test"

Op-Ed, The Huffington Post

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Richard Schmalensee

"Along with these health benefits, the largest shares of short-term improvements in employment and regional economies are likely to accrue to the regions that are most dependent on coal-fired power, as they invest in new pollution control equipment. Thus, while designed to help regions downwind of coal-fired power plants, the Transport Rule also offers substantial benefits to upwind states."

AP Photo

April 22, 2010

"All States Need to Embrace Bipartisan Climate Bill"

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

"A unit of carbon dioxide emitted in California contributes just as much to the problem as carbon dioxide emitted in Tennessee. The overall magnitude of damages — and their location — are completely unaffected by the location of emissions. This means that for any individual jurisdiction, the benefits of action will inevitably be less than the costs. (This is the reason why US action on climate change should occur at the same time as other countries take actions to reduce their emissions)."

AP Photo

Spring 2010

"Scholars' Views Vary on Copenhagen Successes"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

"Belfer Center participants in the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (UNFCCC) agreed that while the summit did not produce the treaty most wanted, it did make some significant progress. They disagree, however, on how much. Professors Jeffrey Frankel, Kelly Sims Gallagher, and Robert Stavins, all members of the Belfer Center Board of Directors, offer their takeaways from the event."

Photo by Zinnia Mukherjee

January 8, 2010

Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins is Inducted as a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

News

By Beth Maclin, Former Communications Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Harvard Kennedy School's Professor Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and a member of the Belfer Center's board of directors, was inducted as a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) on January 4, 2010.