April 14, 2008

"Addressing Global Climate Change with a Comprehensive U.S. Cap-and-Trade System"

By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board

There is a growing impetus for a domestic U.S. climate policy that can provide meaningful reductions in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The paper describes and analyzes an up-stream, economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade system which implements a gradual trajectory of emissions reductions (with inclusion over time of non-CO2 greenhouse gases), and includes mechanisms to reduce cost uncertainty.

March 16, 2008

"State Fight Against Climate Change Benefits Everyone"

Sacramento Bee

By Lawrence Goulder and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board

"Because a cap-and-trade system would reduce California's overall greenhouse gas emissions, it would also lower the state's emissions of the co-pollutants. Still, it's possible, though unlikely, that co-pollutant emissions would increase in a particular locality. But here it's crucial to recognize that existing air pollution laws address such pollutants, and so any greenhouse gas allowance trades that would violate local air pollution limits would be prohibited."

March 17, 2008

Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements Research Workshop

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements hosted a research workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 13–14, 2008. The workshop brought together key scholars and other thinkers working on international climate change policy from a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, and law. Together, they addressed issues such as how to persuade developing countries — among them China and India — to sign on to an international agreement, how to link climate policy with international trade, and how to effectively address deforestation, which accounts for 20 percent of global emissions. Attendees presented their initial research findings and got feedback on their ideas. The workshop was preceded by a reception and dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club, which featured Todd Stern, a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, as a keynote speaker. The final drafts of the research will be published in early fall 2008.

March 20, 2008

"Workshop Ponders: Post-Kyoto, What Next?"

Harvard Gazette

By Sasha Talcott, Director of Communications and Outreach

"The project is examining ideas that are similar to Kyoto’s top-down approach, though stronger, as well as approaches that are substantially different. Key ideas in play range from indexing emissions targets to economic growth, to bottom-up approaches, such as linking together the actions of a number of countries. One of the project’s key goals is to persuade the countries of the world not only to look at ideas similar to the Kyoto Protocol, but also to look at ideas that are very different in structure."

January 22, 2008

Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements Special Paper Competition

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements invites submission of papers focused on the design of international climate policy architectures. Papers should propose a complete policy framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in the post-2012 period.

September 2007

Architectures for Agreement: Addressing Global Climate Change in the Post-Kyoto World

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

The Kyoto Protocol serves as an initial step to mitigate the threats posed by global climate change but policy-makers, scholars, businessmen, and environmentalists have begun debating the structure of the successor to the Kyoto agreement. Written by a team of leading scholars in economics, law and international relations, this book contributes to this debate by examining the merits of six alternative international architectures for climate policy.