Environment & Climate Change

20 Items

In 2011, science advisors to the presidents of China and the United States, Wan Gang and John P. Holdren, hold a photo of the historic 1979 U.S.-China agreement on science and engineering.

USDA

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Center's Energy Work Wields Impact and Influence Around the World

| Fall/Winter 2016-2017

The Belfer Center began researching energy technology issues in the late 1990s. Its mission was “to determine and promote the adoption of effective strategies for developing and deploying cleaner and more efficient energy technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and stress on water resources, and improve economic development.”

In this issue, we look at the history and influence of the Center’s energy innovation efforts in the past two decades by focusing primarily on ETIP’s work in the U.S. and China.

President Barack Obama gets direction from his science advisor John P. Holdren during an event on the South Lawn of the White House to explore the stars with middle school students.

Reuters

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Spotlight on John P. Holdren

| Fall/Winter 2016-2017

As assistant to the president for science and technology, director of the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy, and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), Holdren has worked closely with Obama to reinvigorate America’s scientific capabilities on a range of policy fronts, from climate change and renewable energy to health care and nanotechnology.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Oil, Prices, and Global Impact

Spring 2016

Call it the fall heard round the world.

The dramatic decline in oil prices—from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 this year—has been one of the most disruptive and least expected developments in global energy markets since the 2008 financial crisis.

With the continuation of high oil production and low prices, the Belfer Center’s Khalid Alsweilem, Calestous Juma, David Keith, Henry Lee, Leonardo Maugeri, Meghan O’Sullivan, and Robert Stavins offer insights, predictions, and recommendations based on their research and varied perspectives.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Paris Climate Conference 2015: A key step in stopping climate?

| Fall/Winter 2015-2016

Was the Paris Climate Conference of 2015 a key step in stopping climate change? We asked the Belfer Center's Robert Stavins and David Keith to give us their answers to that question. They agreed to disagree in some of their answers and comments.

David Keith, on The Colbert Report, discusses climate engineering with a skeptical Stephen Colbert (December 2013).

Comedy Central

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Spotlight: David Keith

| Summer 2015

David Keith is the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, housed at the Belfer Center. He has worked at the interface between climate science, energy technology, and public policy for 20 years and has received numerous honors for his work, including the MIT prize for excellence in experimental physics and TIME magazine’s selection as one of its Heroes of the Environment.

John Holdren, assistant to the President for science and technology, at Harvard.

Kris Snibbe

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Holdren Speaks, Acts on Climate Change

Summer 2015

The challenge of climate change is profound. The risks it poses are dire,” said Harvard President Drew Faust as she opened discussions during Harvard’s Presidential Panel on Climate Change on April 13 at Sanders Theatre.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Collaborative Workshop Will Inform Plans for U.S.-China Emissions Deal

Summer 2015

The Belfer Center’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy group is co-organizing a major workshop with China’s Tsinghua University on “Energy Technology Innovation on the “Backdrop of the U.S./China Emissions Deal.” Belfer Center’s Professors Laura Diaz Anadon, Henry Lee and Venky Narayanamurti are planning the June event with Tsinghua University Professor Su Jun, a former Science, Technology, and Public Policy fellow.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Environmental Sustainability Fellow Has Key Role in China's Emissions Reduction Plan

| Summer 2015

Dongsheng Wu has an important role in the development and implementation of China's plans to reduce carbon emissions and, subsequently, climate change. As director of the Department of Climate Change at the Shanxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Wu is responsible for developing a greenhouse gas emissions policy for Shanxi, a region with the highest coal production and highest energy intensity in China.

Robert Stavins

Thomas Kohler, MCC/ZEW

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Climate Change Agreement Takes Center Stage

| Fall/Winter 2014 - 15

The international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change to be determined in Paris in December 2015 is “the greatest opportunity the world has had in 20 years to make meaningful progress on this exceptionally challenging issue,” Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) Director Robert Stavins said in a Boston Globe op-ed in September. Stavins was in New York City during the week of the United Nations Climate Summit, which included numerous side events and a march that attracted several hundred thousand Americans calling for serious climate actions.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Quarterly Journal: International Security

International Security Journal Highlights

Summer 2013

International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary security issues and discusses their conceptual and historical foundations. The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press.