Environment & Climate Change

Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Director Robert N. Stavins delivered a featured address at the Institute of International and European Affairs, Ireland's leading think tank on international affairs, on September 16, 2011, in Dublin. As preparations for the next round of crucial climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, commence, Stavins discussed the prospects for the negotiations; the future of climate action beyond the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012; and the economics of climate change policy.

Project Co-Director Robert Stavins and Analysis Group Inc.'s Judson Jaffe spoke at an International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)–sponsored side event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. They presented their new report on linking greenhouse gas emissions trading systems, which was also sponsored by IETA.

Project Co-Director Joseph Aldy was one of three leading experts on international climate change policy who briefed House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming staff on the key issues on the agenda at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, the negotiating positions of the key players, and the significance and expected results of the conference.

Meckling presented his research on why emissions trading has come to be the preferred policy choice for tackling climate change.

Professor Stavins' presentation at the 7th IETA Forum on the State and Development of the Greenhouse Gas Market described tradable permit systems and linkage among them that allows emission reduction efforts to be redistributed across systems. He notes that linkage may become the de jure or de facto post-2012 international policy architecture.

This powerpoint presentation provides an easy-to-understand overview of the project, the six potential frameworks that are its starting point, the Kyoto Protocol, and the current state of international climate negotiations.