Harvard Project Conducts Roundtable Workshop in Brussels, Hosted by the European Union Commissioner for Environment

The Harvard Project conducted a roundtable workshop on September 30, 2009, hosted by European Union Commissioner for Environment Stavros Dimas and titled "Post-2012 Climate Change Policy: Insights from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements". Commissioner Dimas and Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Project, spoke, respectively, on the status of European Union (EU) and U.S. climate change policy. They also discussed the implications of each for the international climate change policymaking process—specifically, the Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in December 2009. Providing responses to these talks were Michael Wriglesworth, Senior Advisor for Climate Change, Centre for European Policy Studies, and Jos Delbeke, Deputy Director-General (Environment), EU Commission. Nancy Kontou, Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Dimas, then provided an overview of the state of the international negotiations.

Professor Stavins gave a second talk highlighting some of the research conducted by the Harvard Project on options for and approaches to the next international agreement. There was considerable discussion among participants, in particular, of the prospect for linking the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) and cap-and-trade systems that may be created soon in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and other countries.

Participants included thirty representatives from European business corporations and associations, many of whom specialize in climate, energy, and environmental issues. Also participating were scholars from key Brussels-based policy research organizations, energy and environment counselors from U.S.- and EU-member-state missions in Brussels, and senior staff of the EU Commission.