POLICY BRIEFINGS, TESTIMONY & PRESENTATIONS
AP Photo
November 26, 2007
"Pakistan Crisis"
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Barry Newhouse
A discussion of the latest political crisis in Pakistan with VOA correspondent in Islamabad Barry Newhouse and political scientist Hassan Abbas, a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program.
United States Congress
October 1, 2007
"Should the United States Continue Supporting Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf?"
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Moeed Yusuf
Pakistan's October 6 presidential elections present a crossroads, with the possibilities of genuine democratic reform or continued military dominance both in sight.
July 10, 2007
"Pakistani Forces Storm Red Mosque, Kill Cleric"
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Samina Ahmed, Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 1998-2002
Hassan Abbas and Samina Ahmed provided the analysis following the news story.
AP Photo
November 2010
"Institutions for International Climate Governance"
By Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has significant advantages but also real challenges as a venue for international negotiations on climate change policy. In the wake of the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen, December 2009, it is important to reflect on institutional options going forward for negotiating and implementing climate change policy.
November 2009
"Climate Finance"
By The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The finance of climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries represents a key challenge in the negotiations on a post-2012 international climate agreement. Finance mechanisms are important because stabilizing the climate will require significant emissions reductions in both the developed and the developing worlds, and therefore large-scale investments in energy infrastructure. The current state of climate finance has been criticized for its insufficient scale, relatively low share of private-sector investment, and insufficient institutional framework. This policy brief presents options for improving and expanding climate finance.
August 2009
"Options for Reforming the Clean Development Mechanism"
By The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)—established by the Kyoto Protocol of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change—is an emissions offset program that allows industrialized countries to receive credits for funding emissions reduction projects in developing countries. The program is intended to provide a cost-effective way for industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time supporting sustainable development in developing countries. However, the CDM has been criticized for its lengthy and expensive project approval procedures, its exclusion of many categories of potentially important mitigation activities, and its methodologies for calculating whether projects actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In response to these problems, this Issue Brief presents a variety of options for reforming the CDM.
July 10, 2007
"Pakistani Forces Storm Red Mosque, Kill Cleric"
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Samina Ahmed, Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 1998-2002
Hassan Abbas and Samina Ahmed provided the analysis following the news story.
November, 2009
Applying For-Profit Principles in Water Management and Agricultural Policy in the Middle East and North Africa
By Mohamad M. Al-Ississ, Former Research Fellow 2008-2009, The Dubai Initiative
Through its partnerships with the government, the agricultural sector in the MENA has long engaged in dubious accounting practices to raise its reported profits through artificially suppressing its costs. This has led to the current unsustainable exploitation of the scarce water resources in the region.
September 2012
"Climate Negotiations Open a Window: Key Implications of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action"
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
The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action represents an important milestone in the history of climate negotiations. The challenge is to find a way to include all key countries in a structure that brings about meaningful emission reduction on an appropriate timetable at acceptable cost, while recognizing the different circumstances of countries in a way that is more subtle, more sophisticated, and more effective than the dichotomous distinction of years past. This policy brief expands upon the authors' Science article, "Climate Negotiators Create an Opportunity for Scholars."
December 10, 2007
"Architectures for Agreement: Issues and Options for Post-2012 International Climate Change Policy"
By Joseph E. Aldy, Faculty Affiliate, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Carlo Carraro and William A. Pizer
Project Co-Directors Joseph Aldy and Robert Stavins, along with Carlo Carraro of the University of Venice and Resources for the Future's William Pizer, spoke at a Project-sponsored side event at the 13th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia.
