The Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) coordinates a unique award presented by Harvard Kennedy School to an outstanding public-private partnership project that enhances environmental quality through the use of novel and creative approaches.This year, the Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership went to Refrigerants, Naturally!, an unlikely alliance that includes Greenpeace, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The Coca Cola Company, McDonald’s, Unilever, and PepsiCo.

CAMBRIDGE, MA— The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced today that the 2011 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership will be given to Refrigerants, Naturally!, an alliance of corporations substituting environmentally-harmful fluorinated gases ("F-gases", such as CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs) with natural refrigerants in their commercial refrigeration installations. Natural refrigerants are climate and ozone friendly gases that exist naturally in the biosphere, i.e. ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons.

The biofuels industry has become big policy, big business, and increasingly controversial. While countries like the United States and Brazil use biofuels to support farmers, increase energy security (reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil), improve the environment, and increase economic independence by reducing the need for foreign oil, environmentalists challenge the assertion that biofuels, particularly corn ethanol, offer a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

This recent discussion paper from the Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group is a summary of discussions from the Belfer Center's May 2010 workshop "Transportation Revenue Options," which brought together 27 transportation experts for a two-day workshop to discuss revenue-generating options.

What is the potential for biofuels to help meet the world's energy needs, protect the environment, and advance the livelihoods of farmers and other land users around the world? Participants of a workshop organized by the Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) and Harvard Kennedy School's Sustainability Science Program discussed these questions as they addressed the goals of a sustainable biofuel industry in developing countries and the role of certification processes in attaining these goals. The two-day event in late spring attracted more than 20 leading experts from around the world, representing academia, business, and government.

By 2030, China will have to import 77 percent of its crude oil in order to meet its rapidly increasing energy demands. Where China will get the 10.9 billion barrels it requires and how it negotiates the global oil market is the subject of a new paper by Henry Lee, director of the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Belfer Center, and Dan Shalmon, research associate at the Center. "Searching for Oil: China's Oil Initiatives in the Middle East" explores China's relationships with oil-producing countries and the possible geopolitical implications of its widening market reach.