ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Joseph E. Aldy (continued)

AP Photo

November 24, 2008

Designing the Post-Kyoto Climate Regime: Lessons from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements

Report

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

A way forward is needed for the post-2012 period to address the threat of global climate change. The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements is an international, multi-year, multi-disciplinary effort to help identify the key design elements of a scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic post-2012 international policy architecture. Leading thinkers from academia, private industry, government, and non-governmental organizations around the world have contributed and will continue to contribute to this effort. The foundation for the Project is a book published in September 2007 by Cambridge University Press, Architectures for Agreement: Addressing Global Climate Change in the Post-Kyoto World (Aldy and Stavins 2007). From that starting point, the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements aims to help forge a broad-based consensus on a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The Project includes 28 research teams operating in Europe, the United States, China, India, Japan, and Australia.

Project Co-Directors Joseph E. Aldy and Robert N. Stavins have written an Interim Progress Report of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements for the 14th Conference of the Parties, Framework Convention on Climate Change.

AP Photo

September 3, 2008

"The Role of Technology Policies in an International Climate Agreement"

Paper

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements has agreed to help the Office of the Danish Prime Minister, in its role as incoming President of the 2009 Conference of the Parties, to prepare background papers and on-site briefings for a series of very high-level dialogues on climate change policy, hosted by the Prime Minister. These dialogues will each include about 25 participants, including CEOs of European and U.S. corporations, key officials from national governments and intergovernmental organizations, and leaders of major environmental NGOs. This paper on the subject of technology policies was prepared by the Harvard Project leadership for the second dialogue.

May 2008

Climate Change: Expert Opinion on the Economics of Policy Options to Address Climate Change

Report

By U.S. Government Accountability Office, 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

"...GAO was asked to elicit the opinions of experts on (1) actions the Congress might consider to address climate change and what is known about the potential benefits, costs, and uncertainties of these actions and (2) the key strengths and limitations of policies or actions to address climate change. GAO worked with the National Academy of Sciences to identify a panel of noted economists with expertise in analyzing the economic impacts of climate change policies and gathered their opinions through iterative, Web-based questionnaires. The findings reported here represent the views of the 18 economists who responded to both questionnaires."

Two of the 18 economists who participated were Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements Co-Directors Joseph Aldy and Robert Stavins. In addition, two other participating economists, James Edmonds of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and William Pizer of Resources for the Future, are members of Harvard Project research teams.

May 7, 2008

"Economic Incentives in a New Climate Agreement"

Paper

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements has agreed to help the Office of the Danish Prime Minister, in its role as incoming President of the 2009 Conference of the Parties, to prepare background papers and on-site briefings for a series of very high-level dialogues on climate change policy, hosted by the Prime Minister. These dialogues will each include about 25 participants, including CEOs of European and U.S. corporations, key officials from national governments and intergovernmental organizations, and leaders of major environmental NGOs. This paper on the subject of economic incentives was prepared by the Harvard Project leadership for the first dialogue.

May / June 2008

"Climate Policy Architectures for the Post-Kyoto World"

Journal Article, Environment, issue 3, volume 50

"The global climate has changed and will continue to change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from a broad variety of human activities. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change determined that 'most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.' If greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow unabated, the global average temperature will likely increase between 1.1°C and 6.4°C. This warming will unleash a myriad of impacts, the vast majority of which will adversely affect water availability, agricultural and forestry productivity, the spread of infectious diseases, extreme weather events, unique ecosystems and rare species, and the built environment in coastal areas. The risks of global climate change clearly necessitate an international effort."

AP Images

December 18, 2007

Bali Climate Change Conference: Key Takeaways

Summary Report

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

The Bali climate change conference was a qualified success. Before we went to Bali, we observed that it will be good news if there’s no bad news coming out of the negotiations. This was achieved, and then some.

December 17, 2007

"Forging a Climate Agreement That Works"

Op-Ed, PostGlobal, A Conversation on Global Issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria

"...As the nations of the world consider the next international climate agreement, they should not be limited by starting-point bias. In other words, although they should possibly consider an agreement that resembles Kyoto, they should also consider a wide range of other ideas, some of which bear very little resemblance to Kyoto."

December 10, 2007

"Architectures for Agreement: Issues and Options for Post-2012 International Climate Change Policy"

Presentation

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.

December 7, 2007

"Designing Post-2012 International Climate Change Policy"

Magazine or Newspaper Article, ClimatePolicy, An American Meteorological Society Project

By Joseph E. Aldy, Faculty Affiliate, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

The 2007 UN-sponsored climate change negotiations opened in Bali, Indonesia this week. By the end of the conference on December 14, the world community may agree to a two-year "roadmap," as called for by the UN Secretary-General, for negotiating an agreement to guide climate change mitigation efforts after the end of the Kyoto Protocol's 2008–2012 commitment period....

December 3, 2007

"The Road from Bali: Strategies for Post-Kyoto Global Climate Policy"