Harvard Project to Conduct Panels on Key Aspects of Paris Agreement at COP-22 in Morocco

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements will conduct three side-event panels (see below for details of all three) at the Twenty-Second Conference of the Parties (COP-22) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Marrakech, Morocco November 7–18, 2016. COP-22 will focus on elaborating the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at COP-21 in December 2015 and which entered into force on November 4, 2016. Although the Paris Agreement represents a major step forward in efforts to address global climate change, much remains to be done to specify the rules and guidelines required to fully implement the Agreement, which primarily deals with action after 2020.

COP-22 attendees who wish to contact the Harvard Project before or during the conference, should email:

Jason Chapman
Jason_chapman@hks.harvard.edu

Robert Stowe
Robert_stowe@hks.harvard.edu

Events

"The Paris Agreement's Transparency Framework: A Building Block for Enhanced Mitigation"

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

3:00–4:30 pm

Pavilion of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)

The Paris Agreement has established a process of cooperation among all involved stakeholders to coordinate, implement, and review accelerated global action to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change. This process will involve actors and actions at the global, national, and local level, and will need to ensure the sharing of the appropriate information among all the involved stakeholders.

The presentation of a paper by Joseph Aldy, "Living Mitigation Plans: The Co-Evolution of Mitigation Pledge and Review" will examine how the Paris Agreement's enhanced transparency framework can and should be elaborated, implemented, and complemented. The discussion will consider in part "living mitigation plans" as one approach to building upon a necessarily incomplete transparency regime. Panelists will address approaches to realizing the provisions for the Agreement dealing with reporting, review, global stock-taking, and re-pledging, offering possible policy implications for domestic and global climate policy. The panel will address, in addition, how stakeholders' engagement could support NDC implementation and how the review process can inform the design of future NDCs.

Participants:

Joseph Aldy
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School

Robert Stavins
Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government
Harvard Kennedy School
Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Simone Mori
Head of European Affairs
Enel Group

Two respondents from government delegations to be confirmed

Sponsors:
Enel Foundation
Harvard Project on Climate Agreement

"Realizing the Potential of the Paris Agreement"

Thursday, November 17

11:30 am–1:00 pm

Arabian Room

This panel will consider how the Paris Agreement can be elaborated, implemented, and complemented—so that its considerable potential to advance mitigation and adaptation can best be realized. The panel will be based in part on a research workshop that the Harvard Project hosted at Harvard Kennedy School in July 2016 and an edited volume of briefs that workshop participants prepared, released in October 2016.

Participants:

Daniel Bodansky
Foundation Professor of Law
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Arizona State University

Ottmar Edenhofer
Director, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change
Deputy Director and Chief Economist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Kelly Gallagher
Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy
Director, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
Fletcher School, Tufts University

Robert Stavins
Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Sponsors:
Arizona State University
Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Tufts University

Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins will be the keynote speaker at the following event:

"Climate Think Tank Leaders on the Implementation of the Paris Agreement"

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

1:00–3:00 pm

China Pavilion

Leaders of research institutes from around the world, including Robert Stavins, will consider the elaboration and implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Sponsor:
China National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation