Environment & Climate Change

Michael Davidson explores Chinese provinces’ roles in formulating and implementing climate-change policy, in the context of a broader understanding of administrative and political relationships between provincial and central governments.

Fran Ulmer is a Senior Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative. She also is Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and Global Board Chair of The Nature Conservancy. She has served in Alaska as Mayor of Juneau, State Representative, and Lieutenant Governor– the first woman elected to statewide office in the state. She also was Chancellor of the University of Alaska.

We have all heard of the “Great Garbage Patch” of plastics in the Pacific Ocean, but plastic pollution in oceans around the world is a growing international problem. The increase in plastics in the Arctic—including microplastic particles that can make their way into the food chain—are raising serious ecosystem and economic concerns for Arctic leaders and citizens.

The Arctic Innovation Lab, organized by the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative, brings international student leaders together to present innovative solutions to complex challenges facing this vulnerable region. With topics such as food security, geopolitics, and waste management, 13 students pitched their ideas at the October 2019 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, the largest annual global gathering on Arctic issues.

A highly engaged and well-informed audience filled the Pavilion of the International Emissions Trading Association at the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) on December 11 in Madrid to hear from an expert panel about the current state of negotiations on linkage, international cooperation, and the Paris Agreement. The discussion, “Realizing the Potential of Article 6,” was hosted by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) and moderated by HPCA Director Professor Robert Stavins.

As negotiators from around the world arrived in Madrid for the second week of the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP-25), the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted an official COP side event on Dec. 9 focusing on the potential for reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions through the use of carbon pricing.

In this report, the authors conduct a benchmarking analysis for energy and CO2 emissions intensity of the steel industry among the largest steel-producing countries.

Robert Stavins interviews Paul Watkinson, Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP25 in Madrid, Spain.

Robert Stavins interviews Andrei Marcu, founder and executive director of the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition, at COP-25 in Madrid, Spain.

Andrei Marcu, founder and executive director of the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition, provided his insights on the UN Climate Change conference taking place in Madrid this week.