KYOTO PROTOCOL AND POST-KYOTO OPTIONS
December 2008
"Possible Development of a Technology Clean Development Mechanism in a Post-2012 Regime"
Discussion Paper
By Fei Teng, Wenying Chen and Jiankun He
In the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was set up by Article 12 to achieve two-fold objectives: to help Annex I countries to meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way and to support non-Annex I countries in achieving the goal of sustainable development. Although technology transfer is not a requirement for CDM, experience shows that CDM may contribute significantly to technology transfer. However, it is difficult to induce large-scale technology transfer through CDM in its present form. The project-specific nature of CDM leads to high transaction costs and makes it difficult to create economies of scale and pool risks across projects of the same type. Thus CDM is not effective in attracting more low-carbon investors. The CDM does not address the competitiveness concerns of the private sector in developed countries.This paper addresses these challenging issues by proposing an enhanced CDM regime with greater emphasis on technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries.
December 2008
"What Do We Expect from an International Climate Agreement? A Perspective from a Low-income Country"
Discussion Paper
"...[I]t is not clear that emissions trade between developed and developing countries is either feasible or desirable at this juncture. Technological change that lowers the prices of competitors to fossil fuels is the only way out. This can be promoted by regulation, tax, and tradeable permits in developed countries that provide inducements for R&D, and no less importantly, by the direct subsidization of R&D. The bulk of the finance for this will have to come from the developed countries. An international agreement involving developing countries should, at least in the coming round of negotiations, confine itself to promoting technical cooperation between regulators and other entities from all countries. It should include financial support from the developed countries for spreading energy conservation technologies and practices. Tropical agriculture will need a major thrust to develop new varieties that will withstand climate change. The necessary research and development cooperation should be part of the new agreement and needs major funding from developed countries. Research can also include emissions cuts from agricultural sources as long as this is financially well supported so that it does not reduce the funds available for promoting research into agricultural productivity."
Robert C. Stowe
December 15, 2008
Harvard Project Leadership Presents Key Lessons at Official COP 14 Side-Event
Event Summary
By Robert C. Stowe, Executive Director, Harvard Environmental Economics Program; Manager, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
In the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements' official side-event in Poznan, Poland, Professor Robert N. Stavins presented key findings from the project's Interim Report, which synthesizes an extensive research effort conducted by 27 teams of leading experts from developed and developing countries, whose goal is to identify key design principles of a scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic post-2012 international policy architecture.
December 2008
"Reconciling Human Development and Climate Protection: Perspectives from Developing Countries on Post-2012 International Climate Change Policy"
Discussion Paper
By Jing Cao, Former Research Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program, 2002-2003
"...[T]his paper provides a new multi-stage climate policy framework based on a revised Global Development Right (GDR) calculation, and proposes a feasible hybrid negotiation framework from the perspective of developing countries. According to the "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities" principle in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), we recognize that due to the historical emissions contributions and different pace of industrialization and growth around the world, a successful international climate policy needs to balance equity and efficiency and eventually achieve an overall carbon mitigation target."
December 11, 2008
"AB 32 / Combating Global Warming"
Op-Ed, San Diego Union-Tribune
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
"Climate change is an important threat meriting serious attention by policy-makers in California and around the world. Indeed, I am writing from Poznan, Poland, where negotiations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change are being held to work on the design of a meaningful international climate agreement. But meaningfully addressing climate change will neither be easy nor cheap, as negotiators here in Poznan from around the world recognize."
November 24, 2008
New Harvard Project Report Outlines Ideas for Successor to Kyoto Protocol
Press Release
By Sasha Talcott, Director of Communications and Outreach
A new report from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements outlines several promising ideas for successors to the Kyoto Protocol. The report also provides guidance on the most intractable challenges facing global climate negotiators, including participation by developing countries, how to reduce deforestation, and how to prevent a "collision" between climate policy and international trade law.
AP Photo
November 24, 2008
Designing the Post-Kyoto Climate Regime: Lessons from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
Report
By Joseph Aldy, Former Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International 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
November 20, 2008
Obama's Speech on a U.S. Cap-and-Trade System and Global Climate Negotiations
In the News
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
Robert N. Stavins, Harvard Kennedy School professor and co-director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, offered insight and analysis on President-Elect Barack Obama's speech on climate change which was delivered Nov. 18, 2008.
December 2008
"Modeling Economic Impacts of Alternative International Climate Policy Architectures: A Quantitative and Comparative Assessment of Architectures for Agreement"
Discussion Paper
By Valentina Bosetti, Carlo Carraro, Alessandra Sgobbi and Massimo Tavoni
This paper provides a quantitative comparison of the main architectures for an agreement on climate policy. Possible successors to the Kyoto protocol are assessed according to four criteria: economic efficiency; environmental effectiveness; distributional implications; and their political acceptability which is measured in terms of feasibility and enforceability. The ultimate aim is to derive useful information for designing a future agreement on climate change control.
November 2008
"How to Negotiate and Update Climate Agreements"
Discussion Paper
By Bard Harstad
Any climate change agreement ought to be negotiated and updated later on, as we learn more about the costs and benefits of abatements. Anticipating such negotiations, countries may distort domestic decisions (regarding R&D and adaptation, for example) trying to increase their future bargaining power. This can make a situation with an agreement worse than no agreement at all — unless one specifies rules governing the negotiation process. This paper argues that harmonization and the use of formulas, the time span for the agreement, the default outcome if the negotiations should fail, the voting rule and a minimum participation requirement can all be efficiency enhancing rules. Each rule would be more credible and efficient if the climate agreement is linked to a trade agreement, since that would discourage members from opting out or free-riding if they should be adversely affected by the rules.
