The post-pandemic demand for energy combined with the war in Ukraine and subsequent gas shortages have created a global energy crisis. That is the assessment offered by renowned global energy expert Daniel Yergin in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Orley Ashenfelter, the Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University, outlined both the positive and negative impacts of climate change on grape growing and the wine industry in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program."

Robert Stavins closely examines the advantages and disadvantages of two distinct pricing instruments for reducing carbon emissions—carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. Both policy instruments are in common use today in many countries although not in the United States. Stavins looks at the practical challenges, financial implications, and political feasibility of both approaches, concluding that while they are equivalent in many ways, they can perform quite differently along other dimensions, making an apples-to-apples comparison quite difficult.

For an assessment of what was done, and left undone, at the recent United Nations’ Conference of the Parties on climate change, the Gazette spoke with Rob Stavins, the Harvard Kennedy School’s A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development and head of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, who attended his first COP in 2007 in Bali. 

In order to fully appreciate the global climate-change challenge that the Biden administration will face, Robert Stavins reflects on the history of international negotiations that brought us to this point.

Professors Robert N. Stavins and David Victor explore how the coronavirus pandemic has tested the ability of many governments to respond to crises. Climate change could require a similar approach.

David Victor, a professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego, expressed his optimism for European leadership on climate policy in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Kelley Kizzier, who served as a top European Union (EU) negotiator in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), expressed her hopes for progress on international climate policy in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”

Former U.S. lead climate negotiator Sue Biniaz shares her thoughts on the postponement of COP26 in this interview by Professor Robert Stavins. Stavins and Biniaz explore ways to reimagine future United Nations climate negotiations, unresolved concerns from COP25, and how the United States might approach rejoining the Paris Agreement.

Jos Delbeke, Professor at the European University Institute in Florence and at the KU Leuven in Belgium, recounted the history of carbon pricing and voiced his optimism for further international efforts to combat climate change in the newest episode of "Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program."