Environment & Climate Change

75 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.

Turbines at the wind farm at Biedesheim, Germany, June 2016. - Karsten Würth

Karsten Würth

Policy Brief - Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the German Council on Foreign Relations

Transatlantic Action Plan: Energy Policy and Climate Change

    Author:
  • Josef Braml
| January 2021

The Trump administration’s short-sighted geo-economic crackdown on the main international oil and gas producers—be it Saudi Arabia, Russia, or Iran—not only came at the expense of economic interests of allied countries in Europe, but also did long-term harm to the United States itself, helping its global rival China. Sooner rather than later—and a new administration offers this opportunity—U.S. policymakers will have to address businesses’ growing interests in (green) investment strategies and the rapidly intensifying geopolitical rivalry with China. Transatlantic cooperation in the development of sustainable energy sources and technologies will be instrumental. A “Transatlantic New Green Deal” would allow allies to generate much-needed new economic growth after the COVID-19-related economic contraction and improve the energy security of consumer countries, curb the effect of greenhouse gases and realign the balance of power in world energy markets.

Airbus A320

Wikimedia CC/Bernard Spragg

Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

The Extraordinary Climate Agreement on International Aviation: An Airline Industry Perspective

    Author:
  • George Anjaparidze
| October 2019

The climate agreement on international aviation is unique, in that no other sector has a policy that places an absolute global cap on net CO2 emissions. This policy brief provides an overview of how the scheme was designed, its characteristics, and the role played by the International Air Transport Association.

Emissions from coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H.

AP

Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

The United States and the Paris Agreement: A Pivotal Moment

| April 2017

The authors break down the reasons for the United States to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement, arguing that the benefits far outweigh any potential costs. The Agreement gives the United States a seat at the table, and the ability to influence international policy on climate change, showing that the United States is open and willing to cooperate.

Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

Implications of the Paris Agreement for Carbon Dioxide Removal and Solar Geoengineering

| July 2016

The authors explore, in particular, the implications for CO2 removal and solar geoengineering of the Paris Agreement's long-term temperature goals, provision for "removals by sinks," and market-based mitigation mechanisms.

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Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

Evaluating Mitigation Effort: Tools and Institutions for Assessing Nationally Determined Contributions

| November 2015

The emerging pledge and review approach to international climate policy provides countries with substantial discretion in how they craft their intended emission mitigation contributions. The resulting heterogeneity in mitigation pledges places significant demands for a well-functioning transparency and review mechanism. In particular, the specific forms of intended contributions necessitate economic analysis in order to estimate the aggregate effects of these contributions as well as to permit "apples-to-apples" comparisons of mitigation efforts. This paper discusses the tools that can inform such analyses as well as the institutional needs of climate transparency.

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Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

The Role of Border Carbon Adjustment in Unilateral Climate Policy: Insights from a Model-Comparison Study—Summary

    Authors:
  • Christoph Böhringer
  • Edward J. Balistreri
  • Thomas F. Rutherford
| September 2015

In the absence of an effective global agreement to reduce carbon emissions, some industrialized countries have taken unilateral action to reduce emissions. However, unilateral carbon policy can lead to leakage of carbon emissions and precludes abating emissions where such abatement would be least expensive (possibly in other countries). Border carbon adjustment (BCA) is one policy option to mitigate these two disadvantages of unilateral action, but the effectiveness of these measures remains unclear. Comparing the results of simulated carbon policy and BCA in multiple computable general equilibrium (CGE) models of the global economy offers several estimates of the effectiveness of BCA.

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Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

The Role of Integrated Assessment Models in Climate Policy: A User's Guide and Assessment—Summary

| July 2015

Emitting carbon dioxide (CO2 )—and other greenhouse gases—imposes a cost on society because it contributes to damages from climate change. This "social cost" is also known as an "externality," in that the emitter does not bear this cost. The "Social Cost of Carbon" (SCC), then, is the "marginal monetized externality value" of damages from CO2 emissions, where "marginal" refers to the next incremental unit of emissions. As damages from climate change become more evident, it becomes increasingly useful in formulating public policy (especially in connection with attendant benefit-cost analysis of that policy) to employ an SCC—that is, a numerical, non-zero value for climate damages. This paper examines the process in the U.S. government of specifying an SCC.