Environment & Climate Change

541 Items

A man fishes near an oil drilling platform

AP/Eric Gay, File

Policy Brief - Harvard Initiative to Reduce Global Methane Emissions

Updating Estimates of Methane Emissions: The Case of China

    Authors:
  • Zichong Chen
  • Daniel Jacob
| May 2023

The Harvard Initiative to Reduce Global Methane Emissions released its first publication in May 2023: a research brief titled “Updating Estimates of Methane Emissions: The Case of China.” The Initiative is one of five interdisciplinary research clusters funded by the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements collaborates in the implementation of the Initiative.

Women who have been internally displaced selling charcoal on a market in Al Fashir, capital of the Sudanese state of North Dafur, February 18, 2015.

Wikimedia Commons

Journal Article - International Security

Rise or Recede? How Climate Disasters Affect Armed Conflict Intensity

    Author:
  • Tobias Ide
| Spring 2023

Climate disasters shape the trajectory of internal conflicts in states highly vulnerable to changes in conflict dynamics. Conflict after a climate disaster escalates when the disaster induces shifts in relative power that enable one side to increase its military efforts. But when one actor is weakened by the disaster and the other lacks the capability to exploit that weakness, conflict intensity declines.

A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks operate

AP/David Goldman, File

News - Harvard Kennedy School

Harvard Researchers Provide Policymakers a Clearer Picture on Methane Emissions

    Author:
  • Robert O'Neill
| Feb. 06, 2023

Reducing methane emissions can buy the world crucial time to avoid catastrophic global warming. A Harvard team that includes Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Robert Stavins, is helping provide policymakers with the tools to help policymakers do just that.

Audio - Harvard Environmental Economics Program

COP-27 and the Future of Climate Policy: A Conversation with Dan Bodansky

| Jan. 09, 2023

While the Paris Agreement provides the framework for the nations of the world to slow the growth of CO2 emissions, additional policy and technological tools will have to be deployed to meet the challenge of climate change. That’s the perspective expressed by Daniel Bodansky, the Regents’ Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, during the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

A 2019 photo shows a cyclist amidst morning smog in New Delhi, India.

AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File

Analysis & Opinions - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

COP27 May Have Killed the Voluntary Carbon Market: A Better Model Must Take Its Place

| Jan. 03, 2023

Ely Sandler argues that COP27 progress on the Paris Agreement's Article 6 may be a smoking gun for the death of voluntary carbon markets - but suggests a better model that might take its place.

Audio - Harvard Environmental Economics Program

Assessing the Outcomes from COP27: A Conversation with Billy Pizer

| Nov. 25, 2022

Agreement by negotiators at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP-27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt earlier this month on an international fund to provide funding for small nations suffering from climate change was a significant outcome. Yet the inability to achieve substantive commitments by nations to increase their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) was a disappointment. That’s the perspective offered by Billy Pizer, the Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement at Resources for the Future, during the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Robert Stavins

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Newspaper Article - Harvard Gazette

Glimmers of Movement, Hope at COP27

    Author:
  • Alvin Powell
| Nov. 23, 2022

Following the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, Robert Stavins said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette that the talks were both frustrating and hopeful: frustrating because they did little to accelerate the slow pace of action to reduce carbon emissions, and hopeful because of a reawakened dialogue between the world’s biggest emitters—the U.S. and China—and movement to address climate-related damage to the world’s most vulnerable nations.

News - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) at COP-27: Perspectives from HPCA Director Robert Stavins

| Nov. 21, 2022

What is really striking is that the most important development at COP-27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt has taken place thousands of miles away from where the negotiations are taking place. Namely in Bali, Indonesia, where President Biden and President Xi of China met, shook hands, and then engaged on November 14 in a three-hour conversation in which, among other topics, they signaled returning to the cooperative stance that had been so important previously on climate change.

Please note that the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted or co-hosted two official Side Events at COP27 last week.

HPCA Director Robert Stavins discusses

Doug Gavel

News - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

HPCA Director Robert Stavins Shares Thoughts on Carbon Pricing Regimes in COP-27 Side Event

    Author:
  • Doug Gavel
| Nov. 21, 2022

China and the United States are back on a productive track to adopt more cooperative approaches on global climate change. Those were the sentiments expressed by Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins on Wednesday (November 16) during a side event focusing on the China National Climate Change Assessment Report at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.