Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements Research Workshop

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements hosted a research workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 13–14, 2008. The workshop brought together key scholars and other thinkers working on international climate change policy from a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, and law. Together, they addressed issues such as how to persuade developing countries — among them China and India — to sign on to an international agreement, how to link climate policy with international trade, and how to effectively address deforestation, which accounts for 20 percent of global emissions. Attendees presented their initial research findings and got feedback on their ideas. The workshop was preceded by a reception and dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club, which featured Todd Stern, a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, as a keynote speaker. The final drafts of the research will be published in early fall 2008.

The following is an agenda for the workshop:

Thursday, March 13

6:00 – 9:00 pm                     

Reception and dinner, Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge

Guest speaker: Todd Stern, Partner, WilmerHale; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Friday, March 14

8:30 – 9:00 am                     

Welcoming Remarks, Joseph Aldy and Robert Stavins, Co-Directors, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements

Introductions by Participants

9:00 – 10:30 am                  

Presentations Group I (authors present are bolded)

"Promoting Compliance in International Climate Policy Agreements"
Robert Keohane, Professor of International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and Kal Raustiala, Professor, UCLA School of Law

"Metrics for Assessing Comparability and Adequacy of Effort"
Richard Morgenstern, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future, and Carolyn Fischer, Fellow, Resources for the Future

"Equity Principles"
Cass Sunstein, Karl Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, and Eric Posner, Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law, University of Chicago

11:00 am – Noon      Presentations Group II

"Rich Country Mitigation Policy and Resource Transfers to Developing Countries"
Andrew Keeler, Associate Professor, John Glenn School of Public Affairs, and Alexander Thompson, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University

"Developing Country Commitments"
William Pizer, Senior Fellow, and Daniel Hall, Research Assistant, Resources for the Future; Takahiro Ueno, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo, Japan

1:00 – 2:30 pm          Presentations Group III

"Portfolio of Multiple Agreements and Approaches to Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change"
Scott Barrett, Professor of Environmental Economics and International Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University

"Constitutional Rules for (Re-)Negotiating Agreements"
Bård Harstad, Assistant Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Harmonization of Carbon Equivalent Taxes Across Countries"
Richard Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University

3:00 – 4:00 pm          Presentations Group IV

"Policies to Address Deforestation"
Andrew Plantinga, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Oregon, State University, and Kenneth Richards, Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Public Affairs, Indiana University

"Climate Policy and International Trade Policy"
Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Harvard Kennedy School

4:00 – 4:30 pm          Concluding Discussion, Next Steps