Harvard Project Conducts Highly Successful Side-Event at COP-19

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted an official side event at the Nineteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-19) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, Poland on November 18, 2013. The event was titled "Linkage: A Promising Approach to Achieving the Goals of the Durban Platform." Panelists evaluated what may be an important component of global climate-policy architectures for the post-Durban era: linkage of regional, national, and sub-national cap-and-trade systems with other such systems; with carbon-tax regimes; and with non-market-based regulatory systems. The event was co-hosted by the Enel Foundation and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

Speakers were:

• Daniele Agostini, Head of Regulation of Wholesale Markets, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Enel
• Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Deputy Secretary for Climate Policy, California Environmental Protection Agency
• David Hone, Chairman of the Board of Directors, IETA and Senior Climate Change Advisor, Shell
• Gilbert Metcalf, Professor of Economics, Tufts University
• 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 Robert Stavins and Matthew Ranson, "Linkage of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems: Learning from Experience." David Hone also provided a background brief titled "Carbon Pricing, the FVA and the NMM: Charting a Course to a New UNFCCC Agreement."

Attendance was extraordinary, relative to most side-events at COP-19—a nearly full room with a capacity of 250.

The speakers' presentations and David Hone's background paper may be downloaded below.