Environment and Natural Resources

The authors describe the growing ecological and economic threats of plastic pollution to the Arctic. Iceland's Arctic Council chairmanship, the Harvard Kennedy School's Arctic Initiative, and the Wilson Center are co-hosting  a workshop in October 2019 to enable policymakers and experts to begin developing a framework for addressing Arctic plastic pollution. 

Global leaders would do well to pay attention to the warnings of the indigenous residents of tiny Fort Yukon, Alaska.

Ane Lone Bagger visited the Belfer Center to discuss how the exchange of knowledge and problem-solving between the Center and Greenlanders can lead to solutions to issues of environmental degradation and change. 

Fran Ulmer has joined the Belfer Center as Senior Fellow in residence. She will work with the Arctic Initiative, a joint effort of the Center's programs on Environment and Natural Resources and Science, Technology, and Public Policy.

The Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative is selecting a small group of 2–3 Harvard students to present their ideas at the Arctic Innovation Lab in Iceland. The Lab takes place at the world's largest Arctic gathering, the Arctic Circle Assembly, from October 10–13, 2019.  The application deadline is Friday, September 6, 2019.

Joel Clement writes that the innovation and implementation of adaptation measures must be equal in ambition to the scale of the climate threat to the Arctic.

Although Trump did not outline his legal basis for imposing the tariffs, several analysts anticipated that he was seeking to use the authorities granted him under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—the legal basis that presidents rely on to impose financial and economic sanctions against WMD proliferators, terrorist organizations, narco-traffickers, and human rights abusers. Mixing trade and immigration policy under the guise of a national security threat, however, may end up deflating Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaigns against Iran and North Korea.

In a role-play exercise that was the capstone for a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) spring course, “Controversies in Climate, Energy, and the Media: Improving Public Communication,” students played the roles of world leaders and activists speaking on a fictitious cable television program titled, “The Big Melt: The Future of the Arctic.”

On June 6, 2019, Professor John P. Holdren gave a lecture for students and faculty at Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management on the latest climate science as it affects the Arctic.  He discussed efforts to understand the challenges affecting the region and the global community and what further worldwide actions are required to address these challenges.

China's national carbon emissions trading program is expected to become the world's largest carbon market and is critical for achieving China's domestic mitigation goals. But China's trading program is likely to face significant challenges, due to its large scale and high complexity. To address these challenges, we provide a series of policy recommendations, including capacity building from central to local levels, wise selection of allowance allocation methods to cope with changing economic realities, and deepening market-oriented reforms in energy sectors and SOEs.