In this review, the authors synthesize the literature on international climate change cooperation and identify key policy implications, as well as those findings most relevant for the research community. Their scope includes critical evaluation of the organization and implementation of agreements and instruments, retrospective analysis of cooperative efforts, and explanations of successes and failures.

Robert Stavins describes the progress made on curbing greenhouse-gas emissions at the recent climate conference in Katowice, Poland.

Like many other states, Oregon has begun to pursue climate policies to attempt to fill the gap created by the lack of effective climate policy at the Federal level. After adopting a variety of policies to address climate change and other environmental impacts from energy use, Oregon is now contemplating the adoption of a greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade system. However, interactions between policies can have important consequences for environmental and economic outcomes. Thus, as Oregon considers taking this step, reconsidering the efficacy of its other current climate policies may better position the state to achieve long-run emission reductions at sustainable economic costs.

The U.S. Clean Air Act, passed in 1970 with strong bipartisan support, was the first environmental law to give the Federal government a serious regulatory role, established the architecture of the U.S. air pollution control system, and became a model for subsequent environmental laws in the United States and globally. We outline the Act’s key provisions, as well as the main changes Congress has made to it over time. We assess the evolution of air pollution control policy under the Clean Air Act, with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used. We provide a generic assessment of the major types of policy instruments, and we trace and assess the historical evolution of EPA’s policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s.

Robert Stavins addresses the following question: What can climate negotiators do to further strengthen the Paris climate agreement and to encourage countries to further reduce their carbon footprints over time?

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements conducted a research workshop, “Governance of the Deployment of Solar Geoengineering,” September 27 – 28, 2018 at Harvard Kennedy School. Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program collaborated and provided support for the workshop. 

This paper addresses key design issues that were identified by the California state legislature and Air Resources Board in the new compliance period (2021 – 2030) of California’s cap-and-trade system.

Professor Stavins presents the RSIS Distinguished Public Lecture at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, in cooperation with the National University of Singapore, May 3, 2018.

"In his tenure in the House of Representatives, before his move to the CIA, Pompeo, who represented a district in Kansas around Wichita, was a consistent, long-term, and vocal skeptic of the science of climate change, and an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s climate policies...."

This article explores the benefits of — and challenges to — regional, national, and sub-national jurisdictions linking their climate policies with each other.