The core message of But Will the Planet Notice?—presented with both rigor and wit—is that the actions of individuals can do very little to solve major environment problems, including climate change, species preservation, and water scarcity. What's required is economic policy that motivates large portions of the population—and major industrial sectors—to reduce pollution and use resources more efficiently.

Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Harvard Environmental Economics Program, joined colleagues in Changwon, Republic of Korea in mid-July to begin preparing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s  Fifth Assessment Report ("AR5"). The IPCC is the intergovernmental organization dedicated to compiling the most rigorous natural and social-scientific research on climate change; the IPCC Assessment Reports are the scientific gold standard in this field.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted an official side-event at the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico, on December 8, 2010. The session was titled "Institutions for International Climate Governance."

Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements conducted a seminar hosted and organized by the International Peace Institute in New York City on June 21, 2010. His talk, entitled "Climate Change Policy after Copenhagen," addressed the outcomes of COP-15 in Copenhagen, the institutional context of international climate policy, and prospects for domestic climate policy in the United States.

On May 21, 2010, The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements convened the International Research Workshop on Institutions for Global Governance—a research workshop at which leading scholars examined the institutional context of international climate change policy.

In spring 2010, the Harvard Project hosted events with Ambassador Makio Miyagawa, the deputy head of Japan's delegation to the international climate talks, and Nancy Kontou, the European Commission's former head of cabinet to the Commissioner for Environment, at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Robert Stavins, Director, and Robert Stowe, Manager of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements visited Tokyo and Seoul in mid-March to hold high-level discussions on climate change policy with policymakers and scholars. The first stop was Tokyo, where the Japanese Government had released a major draft framework bill on climate change policy only days earlier. The bill would establish a cap-and-trade system in Japan. Professor Stavins and Dr. Stowe met with members of the Japanese parliament, senior staff in the cabinet office, and leading officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy, Trade, and Industry dealing with domestic and international climate change policy.

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.

A number of individuals associated with the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements have received appointments in the administration of President Barack Obama. The Project's former Co-Director, Joseph Aldy, is now Special Assistant to the President for Energy and the Environment, reporting to Carol Browner and Lawrence Summers. (Ms. Browner is Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.) Professor Summers (on leave from Harvard) himself was a member of the Harvard Project's Faculty Steering Committee before becoming Director of the National Economic Council in the White House and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Jody Freeman, also a former member of the Harvard Project's Faculty Steering Committee and a Harvard Law School Professor (on leave of absence), is now Counselor for Energy and Climate in the White House, reporting to Carol Browner.

The current negotiations in Bonn, Germany, mark a major step on the road to the next international climate agreement. With the negotiating text now being discussed, the Harvard Project has a wide array of research papers and policy ideas, each condensed into a two-page summary, which may be useful to those working on these issues. We have chosen to highlight some of those most relevant to the Bonn negotiating agenda.