Harvard Project Conducts Highly Successful Side-Event at COP-18

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted an official side-event at the Eighteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha, Qatar on December 3, 2012. The event was titled "Market Mechanisms in a Post-Durban International Climate Regime." Participants assessed the design and potential role of "new market mechanisms" (NMM) in the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period, Copenhagen/Cancun regime, and a new arrangement arising from the Durban-Platform process. The event was co-hosted by the Enel Foundation and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). Speakers were:

René Castro Salazar, Minister of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications, Government of the Republic of Costa Rica
David Hone, Chairman of the Board of Directors, IETA and Senior Climate Change Advisor, Shell
Axel Michaelowa, Head of International Climate Policy Research, Center for Comparative and International Studies, University of Zurich, and Senior Founding Partner of the consultancy, Perspectives
Simone Mori, Executive Vice President of Regulation, Environment, and Innovation, and Head of Carbon Strategy, Enel
Robert Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School, and Director of the Harvard Project

The presentations were based in part on a Harvard Project Discussion Paper by Dr. Michaelowa, "Can New Market Mechanisms Mobilize Emissions Reductions from the Private Sector?" David Hone also provided a background paper titled "Establishing a Global Carbon Market: A Discussion on Linking Various Approaches to Create a Global Market." This is attached as a PDF at the bottom of this page.

Attendance was extraordinary, relative to most side-events at COP-18. A standing-room only (and overflowing-into-the–hallway!) crowd numbered about 250. (See accompanying photo.)

The speakers' presentations, as well as David Hone's background paper, may be downloaded below.