News & Announcements

HPCA and Director Robert Stavins played an active role at COP 28 in Dubai, which concluded on December 12 with an historic agreement calling for “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Aside from moderating an official HPCA Side Event on reducing global methane emissions, Stavins also participated in several other panel discussions and forums on issues relating to the climate change negotiations as well as meetings with participants and journalists. Read more on HPCA’s activities in Dubai on our COP 28 Tumblr page.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) assembled a panel of leading academics and government officials to discuss strategies for achieving significant methane emissions reductions at relatively low costs at an official COP 28 Side Event last Wednesday (Dec. 6). The event, titled “Reducing Global Methane Emissions: Imperatives, Opportunities, and Challenges,” was moderated by HPCA Director Robert Stavins.

Efforts around and impacts of global methane-emissions abatement will be the focus at an official side event on December 6 co-sponsored by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP-28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai. Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins will also participate in a number of other events at COP-28.

An April seminar co-organized by the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Arctic Mayors’ Forum, “Building Climate Resilience in the Urban Arctic,” brought together mayors and climate officials from the municipalities across the Arctic to discuss how climate change was impacting their cities and how their cities were responding to those impacts. The speakers also drew out lessons that other climate-vulnerable cities elsewhere in the world could learn from the Arctic experience.

The Environment and Natural Resources Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs announced today that ColdHubs Limited is the winner of the 2022 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership. The company—born out of a partnership between the Smallholders Foundation, the Institute for Air Handling and Refrigeration (ILK Dresden), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)—uses solar-powered walk-in cold rooms to reduce post-harvest losses for smallholder farmers across rural Nigeria.

The Danish Minister of Climate, Energy, and Utilities expressed his hope that the tragic war in Ukraine will help accelerate the clean energy transformation by weaning Europe off Russian gas during a Virtual Forum (view recording here) last Friday (April 8). The event was hosted by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) and moderated by Robert Stavins, HPCA Director and A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development. 

What if we could repurpose oil and gas pipelines to supply remote Arctic communities with clean water? What if Arctic entrepreneurs could connect with investors and raise capital over an online crowdfunding platform? These were some of the novel solutions to Arctic challenges proposed by Harvard Kennedy School students during this year’s Arctic Innovation Lab in January.

With negotiators from around the world hammering out the details of a revised global climate deal at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, much of the work is centered on reaching agreement on a set of rules governing the global carbon market. The so-called “Rulebook” for implementing Article 6 of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement is considered by many to be critically important for enhancing ambition among countries for the plans and pledges contained in their Nationally Determined Contributions. Potential solutions to achieve consensus on the Article 6 Rulebook were the focus of discussion on November 10 at a COP26 side event—“Securing Climate Ambition with Cooperative Approaches: Options under Article 6.”

Negotiators convening this week and next at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, Scotland will be challenged to find consensus on a range of issues, but perhaps none more important than the so-called “Rulebook” for implementing Article 6 of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. A panel of experts shared their perspectives on the negotiations during a webinar on Monday (November 1), co-sponsored by the Enel Foundation and the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA). Titled “Prospects for Article 6: COP-26 and Beyond,” the webinar was moderated by HPCA Director Robert Stavins.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements will conduct a panel event, "Securing Climate Ambition with Cooperative Approaches: Options under Article 6", at the Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-26) of the UNFCCC in Glasgow, Scotland on November 10.  Attendees must have a badge credentialed from the UNFCCC to attend this event.