Environment and Natural Resources

Cement production is one of the most energy-intensive and highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting manufacturing processes. The goal of this study is to develop a roadmap for decarbonization of California's cement and concrete production. In this study, the authors look at the current status of cement and concrete production in California and develop scenarios up to 2040 to analyze different decarbonization levers that can help to reduce CO2 emissions of cement and concrete production in California.

If a single armada of drones can make its way across the Saudi airspace undetected and successfully hit targets with surgical precision and maximum damage, then one must conclude the country's vulnerability quota is quite high.

The ACDA’s existence meant arms control and disarmament would not become lost in bureaucratic fights between other departments.

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.

The Arctic Transformation and Resilience Study Group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Joel Clement, will give students the opportunity to learn about and work on issues of Arctic resilience. Working together to deliver a compilation and brief analysis of existing policies that support or inhibit resilience in the Arctic, students will have the opportunity to meet with top Arctic scientists, policymakers, indigenous knowledge-holders, and finance experts, while developing a report that will be delivered to the Secretariat of the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group.

This study group will be held on Tuesdays, from 6pm–7:30pm, beginning Oct 29, and including Nov 5, 12, 19, and 26. For more information or to sign-up, please contact brittany_janis@hks.harvard.edu. Space is limited; please register by October 21.

After many years of productive service, industrial plants reach the end of their useful life and must be dismantled. This complex and costly process, know as decommissioning (commissioning refers to the beginning of a plant useful life), is a confluence of economic, environmental, physical, and regulatory challenges.

As the United States boycotts the New York climate summit, John Holdren explains why a change in leadership is needed to restore U.S.-China climate cooperation.

Shaughnessy and Joel Clement, Senior Fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists and former Director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Interior, talk about blowing the whistle on former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for his efforts to purge the agency of government scientists working to address climate change in the Trump Administration.

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.