Climate Conference Moves Forward – Slowly

In December, the member nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Doha, Qatar, for the Eighteenth Conference of the Parties (COP- 18) to discuss climate change on a global level.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements co-hosted, with the government of Qatar, an event entitled “After Doha: Balancing Adaptation, Mitigation, and Economic Development.” Robert Stavins, Director of The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Belfer Center board member, represented the Project at the general conference—and gave the hosts high marks.

“There were three aspects to what we identified in advance as success, and [The Qataris] achieved all three, though maybe not to the degree or in the way that every country in the world would have preferred,” Stavins said of the event.

Stavins applauded the extension amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, the finalization of the Long-Term Cooperative Action track, and progress on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action—all components of climate policy that will be pivotal in the next COP meetings and agreements.

Stavins and the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements also hosted a side-event at COP-18, titled “Market Mechanisms in a Post-Durban International Climate Regime.” Participants in this event assessed the design and potential role of “new market mechanisms” in the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period, among other topics.