Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy: Summary for Policymakers

Overview

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements seeks to identify key design elements of a scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic post-2012 international policy architecture for global climate change. It draws upon leading thinkers from academia, private industry, government, and non-governmental organizations from around the world to construct a small set of promising policy frameworks and then disseminate and discuss the design elements and frameworks with decision-makers. The Project is directed by Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

This volume is a highly topical contribution to climate policy debates that offers options, based on cutting-edge social-science research, for an international climate change regime to succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. It distils key findings from the Harvard Project into an easy reference for policymakers, journalists, and stakeholders.

Praise For Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy: Summary for Policymakers —

"With this book, the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements provides an excellent analysis of the potential instruments and policies available for a new climate regime. The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 is a decisive moment for our ability to address a global challenge together. As the host of the Conference, Denmark plays a critical role in facilitating a global agreement. This book is a valuable tool for the negotiations."
— Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark and President of the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

"Addressing climate change is the defining challenge of our age. If we are to rise to this challenge, an ambitious and comprehensive global agreement must be reached urgently. This book provides an informative and timely analysis of the design options for such a global agreement and its subsequent implementation and will be an essential reference book to inform policy makers in their efforts to develop an architecture which is based on science, economically rational, and politically feasible."
— Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for Environment, European Commission

"The world desperately needs a global climate change agreement, and this impressive collection of scholarly work highlights the essential challenges facing global leaders, and outlines possible paths to reach such an agreement."
— Eileen Claussen, President, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

"This publication will provide indispensable advice for those responsible for the climate change negotiations at Copenhagen and what follows. The contributors and editors are the world's foremost experts, with both academic and practical experience in science, economics, law, and diplomacy—and making government structures work. The climate talks involve arguably the most important but also the most complex international negotiations ever conducted. It is therefore essential that the parties have access to the wisdom provided in this volume."
— C. Boyden Gray, Former United States Ambassador to the European Union

"Global climate regime building requires intellectual inputs. This timely volume of highly essential and constructive elements provides a wide readership with an in-depth understanding of equity, sustainability, and efficiency approaches to a successful conclusion of an international climate agreement at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009."
— Pan Jiahua, Director, Research Centre for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

"A global agreement on climate change is of profound importance for the future of the planet. It must be effective, efficient and equitable. The details of the translation of these principles into practice matter greatly. The work of Aldy and Stavins is of very high quality and a major contribution. It should be read by all those with an interest in or involved with, the Copenhagen Summit of 2009 and beyond." — Lord Nicholas Stern, I. G. Patel Professor of Economics and Government, London School of Economics and Political Science