Asia & the Pacific

8 Items

Analysis & Opinions - GlobalPost

EPA Regulations give Obama Standing to Influence Global Climate Action

| September 28, 2013

"A legitimate US climate policy regime enables other countries to create their own domestic policies. Many countries have long been ready to act on climate change, but struggled to justify climate policies to their own people when the United States, the largest pollution emitter in the world, was not seriously pursuing emissions reductions."

Seeking Solutions: A participant (left) gets information at the interactive climate wall during the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

AP Photo

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Scholars' Views Vary on Copenhagen Successes

"Belfer Center participants in the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (UNFCCC) agreed that while the summit did not produce the treaty most wanted, it did make some significant progress. They disagree, however, on how much. Professors JeffreyFrankelKelly Sims Gallagher, and Robert Stavins, all members of the Belfer Center Board of Directors, offer their takeaways from the event."

Global Solutions: Professor Cao Jianlin, vice minister of China’s Ministry of China and Technology, presents the opening remarks at the joint U.S.-China workshop.

Belfer Center Photo

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Center Hosts U.S.-China Workshop on Clean Energy and Carbon Collection, Sequestration

| Summer 2009

With both China and the United States relying heavily on coal for electricity, senior government officials from both countries have urged immediate action to push forward technology that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. They discussed possible actions at a high-level workshop in April jointly sponsored by the Belfer Center's Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group, China's Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Book - Brookings Institution Press

Acting in Time on Energy Policy

| May 2009

Energy policy is on everyone's mind these days. The U.S. presidential campaign focused on energy independence and exploration ("Drill, baby, drill!"), climate change, alternative fuels, even nuclear energy. But there is a serious problem endemic to America's energy challenges. Policymakers tend to do just enough to satisfy political demands but not enough to solve the real problems, and they wait too long to act. The resulting policies are overly reactive, enacted once damage is already done, and they are too often incomplete, incoherent, and ineffectual. Given the gravity of current economic, geopolitical, and environmental concerns, this is more unacceptable than ever. This important volume details this problem, making clear the unfortunate results of such short-sighted thinking, and it proposes measures to overcome this counterproductive tendency.

Book Chapter

Oil Security and the Transportation Sector

| May 2009

"This chapter proposes to answer five fundamental questions: What exactly is the oil security problem, and how serious is it going forward? Why has it emerged at this point in time, and why has it been so difficult for the U.S. government to take the actions needed to mitigate it? Finally, what alternative policies are likely to be effective as the United States attempts to improve its oil security in the future?"