Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Professor Stavins presents the RSIS Distinguished Public Lecture at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, in cooperation with the National University of Singapore, May 3, 2018.

In this talk sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative, Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins will provided an economic perspective as he assesses the Paris Agreement, reached in December of 2015. He will review the previous 20 years of climate negotiations in order to place the Paris Agreement in its proper context. Drawing on research carried out by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, he will provide a detailed assessment of the new approach now being taken, looking both at the significant accomplishments of the Agreement, as well as the key challenges that remain.

Climate change is a global problem that will require global solutions. Harvard Kennedy School expects to be a part of the solution through the development of academically rigorous research and ideas, and by engaging policymakers, non-governmental actors, practitioners, scholars, and others from around the world.

Is EPA's proposal for regulating carbon emissions from existing sources a reasonable interpretation of the Clean Air Act, likely to lead to significant environmental benefits at reasonable economic cost, or is it an overly complex overreach, likely to be overturned by the courts or abandoned by a future president?  In a discussion moderated by Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government Robert Stavins, David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Jeffrey Holmstead of Bracewell & Giuliani discussed their differing views of EPA's proposed rule.

Economics are an essential part of understanding climate change and for developing solutions to it. Robert Stavins and Rohini Pande focused on that idea at a Harvard Kennedy School "IDEASpHERE" event titled "Harnessing Market Forces to Protect the Climate."

Professor Robert Stavins explains the background of the international climate change policy negotiations now taking place in Warsaw, Poland, their significance, and the path ahead. As director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, he also describes the activities of the Project at the meetings in Warsaw.

Professor Robert Stavins, Harvard Project Director, recently published the second volume of his collected papers with Edward Elgar Publishing. The 26 essays in the volume cover a wide range of topics, including: environmental policy analysis; economic analysis of environmental policy instruments; economics and technical change; natural resource economics — land and water; and domestic and international climate change policy. The first volume of Professor Stavins' papers was published in 2000 — also by Edward Elgar — covering the period 1988–1999.

Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Director Robert N. Stavins delivered a presentation titled "Climate Change: Efficiency and Equity," at The Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 29, 2011. The talk was one in the Geneva Environmental Dialogue Series of public keynote lectures that the Institute holds annually on a theme related to the international environment. The theme for the 2011–2012 term is "Justice and the Environment."