The Harvard Project releases a collection of expert briefs on the elaboration of the Paris Agreement.

The purpose of the workshop was to identify options for elaborating and implementing the Paris Agreement—and to identify policies and institutions that might complement or supplement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process.

Harvard Project Director Robert N. Stavins was awarded the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Award on July 12, 2016, which is presented annually by the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance (CCEEB) to a leader in advancing environmental policy in California. CCEEB is a coalition of business, labor, and public leaders seeking to promote both a sound economy and a healthy environment. The award is named after the former California governor, founding CCEEB Chairman, and father of current Governor Jerry Brown.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements received a grant in March 2016 from the Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund, along with nine other programs and projects at Harvard University. The awardees are profiled in an article in the Harvard Gazettehere.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements—and its Director, Robert Stavins—have completed a multi-year, multi-faceted engagement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is an intergovernmental organization that engages the global scientific community in assessing research on climate change and synthesizing this research for policymakers. The IPCC, as the leading organization pursuing this mission, prepares its reports primarily for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its member governments.

"The role of market mechanisms for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and the relationship between climate change policy and international trade were the topics of a side-event panel discussion on Friday at the Conference of the Parties (COP21), the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris. The panel discussion, which was co-sponsored by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, addressed a variety of issues related to the emissions-reduction targets that countries are putting forward as part of a new agreement to be concluded in Paris."

Drew Faust, President of Harvard University, hosted a high-level panel on November 16, 2015 addressing the upcoming Paris climate talks, under the auspices of the United Nations. The panel was moderated by Richard McCullough, Vice Provost for Research at Harvard University.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements will co-host four events at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France in December.

"Given that mitigation contributions are self-defined and submitted in advance…the negotiations over finance are the most significant challenge to a successful conference."