ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
July 20, 2015
By Bryan Galcik
Professor Stavins explained how the global commons dilemma provides a disincentive for action on climate change by individual countries since the climate benefits they gain individually would be less than the cost of action, while on a global basis the benefits could be much greater. Stavins argued that carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems are the most effective solutions to reduce emissions.
July 15, 2015
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Climate Change National Forum
"People do often say this is symbolic. Now this is essentially a rhetorical argument dressed up like a substantive one. We know from every day, from politics, and from history, that symbols do have a huge impact on politics, have a huge impact on how people think about problems. And politics has a huge impact on economics.'
Journal Article, Sustainable Production and Consumption
By Arani Kajenthira, Former Associate, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, April–June 2013; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, September 2010–March 2013, Afreen Siddiqi, Visting Scholar, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and Laura Diaz Anadon, Assistant Professor of Public Policy; Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Co-PI, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group
Water, energy, and food security are of critical concern as rising population growth and rapid urbanization place greater pressure on our natural resources. This study evaluates the growing internationalization of food production in water-scarce countries using the case of Saudi Arabia as a microcosm to illustrate the tradeoffs in resource consumption associated with crop selection and farming practices.
By Bard Harstad
Recent research in economics shows how not to design climate treaties—and suggests how to get it right.
The authors argue that the climate change global commons problem will be solved only through coherent carbon pricing. They discuss a roadmap for negotiating a uniform carbon price across countries, for verification of emissions reduction, and for a governance process to which countries would commit.
July 7, 2015
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Behnam Taebi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
"In an unprecedented action, a court has ruled that the Dutch Government must reduce its greenhouse emissions by 25%. The landmark case was initiated by some 900 Dutch citizens and the verdict offers a legal breakthrough in a longstanding political stalemate, underlining the potential power of a well-informed grassroots lobby group in the environmental policy area"
The authors explore several approaches to an ambitious climate agreement in Paris in late 2015—including through carbon pricing.
June 18, 2015
Journal Article, Nature, volume 522
By Zhu Liu, Giorgio Ruffolo Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, Dabo Guan, Scott Moore, Former Giorgio Ruffolo Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, 2012–2014, Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program, Jun Su, Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2001–2002 and Qiang Zhang
China is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting for one-quarter of the global total in 2013. Although the country has successfully lowered the rate of emissions from industry in some cities through improved technology and energy-efficiency measures, rapid economic growth means that more emissions are being added than removed. Without mitigation, China's CO2 emissions will rise by more than 50% in the next 15 years.
June 18, 2015
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Harvard Gazette
"Last year at the United Nations General Assembly, heads of state came together to talk about climate change. We had an announcement on carbon pricing signed on by more than 70 countries, more than 1,000 businesses — reflecting this emerging view of both those in public policy and those using the technologies in the business world — that pricing carbon is the way to get us off of fossil fuels, to create that incentive for the technologies that will allow us to still enjoy the level of economic development that we aspire to, without having an adverse impact on the climate."
By Joseph E. Aldy, Faculty Affiliate, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
Inadequate policy surveillance has undermined the effectiveness of multilateral climate agreements. To illustrate an alternative approach to transparency, the author evaluated policy surveillance under the 2009 G-20 fossil fuel subsidies agreement. The Leaders of the Group of 20 nations tasked their energy and finance ministers to identify and phase-out fossil fuel subsidies. The G-20 leaders agreed to submit their subsidy reform strategies to peer review and to independent expert review conducted by international organizations.