The Kyoto Protocol serves as an initial step to mitigate the threats posed by global climate change but policy-makers, scholars, businessmen, and environmentalists have begun debating the structure of the successor to the Kyoto agreement. Written by a team of leading scholars in economics, law and international relations, this book contributes to this debate by examining the merits of six alternative international architectures for climate policy.

The world's first step to address global climate change, in the Kyoto Protocol, was not perfect. The next step does not need to be perfect either, but it ought to be an improvement. To contribute to the effort in designing the next step, we have just launched the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements. This initiative will draw upon leading thinkers from academia, private industry, government, and non-governmental organizations from around the world to identify key design elements and construct a small set of promising policy frameworks, and then disseminate and discuss the design elements and frameworks with decisionmakers in the United States, Europe, and around the world.

This powerpoint presentation provides an easy-to-understand overview of the project, the six potential frameworks that are its starting point, the Kyoto Protocol, and the current state of international climate negotiations.

Paper presented at the Leaders' Summit on Post-Kyoto Architecture: Toward an L20? Conference, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY, September 21, 2004

This is a chapter from the report, "Beyond Kyoto: Advancing the International Effort Against Climate Change." Arlington, VA: Pew Center on Global Climate Change, pp. 85-110.

In: R. Lutter and J.F. Shogren, eds., Painting the White House Green: Rationalizing Environmental Policy Inside the Executive Office of the President. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future Press, pp. 89-118

A critical review of the Kyoto Protocol and thirteen alternative policy architectures for addressing the threat of global climate change.

Prepared for the conference on "The Timing of Climate Change Policies," Pew Center on Global Climate Change, October 2001.