ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Photo by Sharon Wilke
February 5, 2010
New York Times' Andrew Revkin, American University's Matthew Nisbet, Urge Better Communication on Climate Change
News
By Lucia Cordon
Andrew Revkin of the New York Times' blog "Dot Earth" and Matthew Nisbet, assistant professor in the School of Communication at American University, headlined a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School Thursday on "The Public Divide Surrounding Climate Change."
AP Photo
February 2010
"Climate Change Policies: Many Paths Forward"
Policy Brief
By Paula J. Dobriansky, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Vaughan C. Turekian
The current global economic crisis highlights the fact that environmental objectives exist in a balance with economic growth, a balance that political leaders struggle to find in their own countries and at the global level. The UNFCCC contributes importantly to achieving a healthy balance by providing an overall framework for action to address climate change and as a regular gathering point for diplomats, policymakers, and technical experts from the widest range of countries. As such, it is a unique forum for building partnerships to help countries meet their own national objectives and to forge the consensus needed for success in global efforts to address climate change. It could also help to coordinate international efforts, creating synergies, and avoiding duplication.
AP Photo
January 2010
"The São Paulo Proposal for an Improved International Climate Agreement"
Policy Brief
By Erik Haites
An effective international climate agreement poses formidable challenges. Existing agreements, naturally, have some good features. Further improvements are being discussed in the current negotiations. But the cost and uncertainty associated with regular renegotiation of commitments is not being addressed. The São Paulo Proposal suggests mechanisms that would avoid the need for regular renegotiation of commitments and suggests other ways to make international climate agreements more effective.
January 2010
"The Regime Complex for Climate Change"
Discussion Paper
By Robert O. Keohane and David G. Victor
There is no integrated, comprehensive regime governing efforts to limit the extent of climate change. Instead, there is a regime complex: a loosely coupled set of specific regimes. We describe the regime complex for climate change and seek to explain it, using functional, strategic, and organizational arguments. It is likely that such a regime complex will persist: efforts to build an effective, legitimate, and adaptable comprehensive regime are unlikely to succeed. Building on this analysis, we argue that a climate change regime complex, if it meets specified criteria, has advantages over any politically feasible comprehensive regime, particularly with respect to adaptability and flexibility. These characteristics are particularly important in an environment of high uncertainty, such as in the case of climate change where the most demanding international commitments are interdependent yet governments vary widely in their interest and ability to implement such commitments.
Photo by Jason Chapman
January 13, 2010
Harvard Project Hosts High-Level Climate Policy Roundtable in Copenhagen
Highlight
By Sasha Talcott, Director of Communications and Outreach
The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements hosted a high-level roundtable at the Copenhagen Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in December, attended by key leaders in government, business, and environmental advocacy groups. The meeting gave negotiators and stakeholders an opportunity to explore the future direction of climate change policy and included a briefing on recent Harvard Project research.
January 13, 2010
"Certification Strategies, Industrial Development and a Global Market for Biofuels"
Discussion Paper
By Ricardo Hausmann and Rodrigo Wagner
In a discussion paper released by Harvard University's Sustainability Science Program and the Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, Ricardo Hausmann and Rodrigo Wagner lay out five organizing principles for maximizing the development impact of a global biofuel market.
A disproportionately large amount of the world's agronomic potential for the production of bio-ethanol is concentrated in a subset of developing countries. To develop that potential, countries need both the existence of an appropriate local business ecosystem and reliable global demand. The creation of a global market for green biofuels, however, is affected by a constellation of diverse and sometimes conflicting policy goals, which tend to complicate policy discussion. In this paper we compile a set of principles to guide the design of a global market for green biofuels.
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, Communications Assistant and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International 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.
AP Photo
January 2010
"Catalyzing Strategic Transformation to a Low-carbon Economy: A CCS Roadmap for China"
Journal Article, Energy Policy, issue 1, volume 38
By Hengwei Liu, Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group
China now faces the three hard truths of thirsting for more oil, relying heavily on coal, and ranking first in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Given these truths, two key questions must be addressed to develop a low-carbon economy: how to use coal in a carbon-constrained future? How to increase domestic oil supply to enhance energy security? Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may be a technological solution that can deal with today's energy and environmental needs while enabling China to move closer to a low-carbon energy future. This paper has been developed to propose a possible CCS roadmap for China.
AP Photo
December 18, 2009
"Achieving Comparable Effort through Carbon Price Agreements"
Policy Brief
By Warwick McKibbin, Adele Morris and Peter Wilcoxen
Parties could break the stalemate around hard targets and ensure the comparability of efforts by supplementing commitments on emissions with commitments for price signals on carbon. Under our proposal, all major parties would need to show at least a minimum level of effort regardless of whether they achieve their emissions target, and they would be allowed to exceed their target if they were unable to achieve it in spite of undertaking a high level of effort.
AP Photo
December 15, 2009
"Testing Obama's Foreign Policy"
Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Africa)
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...critics on the left have complained that he has not been able to get Congress to pass a tough energy bill before the Copenhagen conference on climate change. But Obama has helped to persuade China and India to announce useful efforts, and he will set an American target of reducing greenhouse emissions that should prevent the conference from being a failure."
