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Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements conducted two virtual research workshops on climate-change policy in China. The first was titled “Prospects for Guangdong Province’s Emissions Trading System” and was held in June. The Harvard Project co-organized the workshop with the Research Center for Climate Change, Guangdong University of Technology, directed by Professor Zeng Xuelan.
The second research workshop in October examined emissions-trading systems (ETSs) and the power sector in China. Co-sponsors were the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Center for Energy Economics and Strategy Studies, Fudan University, directed by Professor Wu Libo. While the primary focus was on China’s recently-launched power-sector ETSs, presenters made comparisons with functioning or planned ETSs in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The Harvard Project conducted a research workshop on subnational climate-change policy in India in December, in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research (New Delhi) and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University. One session of the workshop featured a panel of state-level officials focusing on climate-change and related energy policy.
Harvard Project personnel attended the Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. Director Robert Stavins and Co-Director Robert Stowe moderated a panel event focusing on the Paris Agreement’s Article 6, which incentivizes market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Professor Stavins also participated in a panel hosted by the government of the Republic of Korea, reviewing a large-scale low-carbon experiment on Jeju Island. Stavins hosted a webinar series throughout the year titled “Conversations on Climate Change and Energy Policy.” These virtual forums attracted hundreds of viewers from around the world. Guests included Valerie Karplus, Associate Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert on climate and energy policy in China; Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, who played a major role in the adoption of the Paris Agreement; Ottmar Edenhofer, Director and Chief Economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; and Nathaniel Keohane, now President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
Stavins also hosted a monthly podcast titled “Environmental Insights.” Guests included Sheila Olmstead, Professor of Public Affairs at Texas LBJ School, who spoke on water management and environmental justice; and Jody Freeman, professor at Harvard Law School, who spoke on prospects for U.S. climate-change policy.
The Harvard Project will undertake a new initiative in 2022 whose goal is to examine the political economy of carbon-pricing approaches in the United States and thereby expand the universe of politically-feasible options for effective U.S. energy and climate policy. The initiative will explore ways of tailoring politically viable and durable carbon-pricing policies as well as how to integrate the incentives and design elements of carbon pricing in non-pricing climate-policy instruments, such as clean energy standards and subsidies.
The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements identifies and advances scientifically sound, economically sensible, and politically pragmatic public policy options for addressing global climate change.
Director:
Robert N. Stavins
Co-Director:
Robert C. Stowe
Project Manager:
