“The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted an official side-event at the Eighteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha, Qatar on December 3, 2012. The event was titled “Market Mechanisms in a Post-Durban International Climate Regime.” Participants assessed the design and potential role of “new market mechanisms” (NMM) in the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period, Copenhagen/Cancun regime, and a new arrangement arising from the Durban-Platform process.”

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“Harvard environmental economist Robert Stavins said last week that national politics have “tainted” cap and trade, making it unlikely the country will adopt such a scheme to fight climate change anytime soon, even though similar plans are being adopted by other nations around the world.”

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“As I have written in many previous essays at this blog, the challenges standing in the way of an effective international climate change agreement are numerous and severe.  It is also true that the prospects for a truly meaningful deal may be better now than at any time in the past decade or more.  That is the theme of a new article I’ve co-authored with my Harvard Kennedy School colleague, Joseph Aldy.  The article, “Climate Negotiators Create an Opportunity for Scholars,” was published in the August 31^st edition of Science.

…In our Science article, Joe Aldy and I trace this history and describe several potential international climate policy architectures that could be consistent with the process and principles laid out in both the Durban Platform and the UNFCCC.  Our article is very brief, and so rather than trying to summarize it here, I encourage you to follow this link to read the essay in its entirety.

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“Debate continues in the United States, Europe, and throughout the world about whether the forces of the marketplace can be harnessed in the interest of environmental protection, in particular, to address the threat of global climate change.  In an essay that appears in the Spring 2012 issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, my colleague, Joseph Aldy, and I take on this question.  In the article – “Using the Market to Address Climate Change:  Insights from Theory & Experience” – we investigate the technical, economic, and political feasibility of market-based climate policies, and examine alternative designs of carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, and clean energy standards.”

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“When asked to weigh in, Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University’s Environmental Economics Program, surprisingly sided with New Jersey officials, saying the state’s exit is ‘not of major consequence’ because RGGI is nonbinding in the first place.

‘Their withdrawal is not of great significance,’ he said.

Stavins explained that low natural gas prices, the recent recession and one of the mildest winters in recent memory have helped to do the work that was envisioned by RGGI back when it was conceived.”

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Stavins was also quoted in “U.N. talks on Rio agenda break off, but negotiators vow to resume” in ClimateWire on May 8, 2012.

“‘They all point in the same direction. My view is that the U.S. is accomplishing something of significance,’ said Robert Stavins, director of the environmental economics program at Harvard University. ‘Other countries, European and the emerging economies, really want to see an ambitious domestic climate policy. Given our current politics, that’s exceptionally unlikely.’”

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“Robert Stavins, an economist at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, noted that grants and other public funds for emissions mitigation in developing countries stand a greater chance of not being used for that purpose. The reason, he argued, is not because of corruption, but because poor countries have serious health, food security and other development needs that compete for every dollar that goes into a general fund.

‘There’s a long list of priorities before you get down to mitigating your CO2 emissions,’ Stavins said. ‘On the other hand, funds that are leveraged in the private sector would result in investments for those purposes.’”

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“Friday, October 21st was a significant day for climate change policy worldwide and for the use of market-based approaches to environmental protection, but it went largely unnoticed across the country and around the world, outside, that is, of the State of California.  On that day, the California Air Resources Board voted unanimously to adopt formally the nation’s most comprehensive cap-and-trade system, intended to provide financial incentives to firms to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, notably carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, to their 1990 level by the year 2020, as part of the implementation of California’s Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.  Compliance will begin in 2013, eventually covering 85% of the state’s emissions.”

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“The Seventeenth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Durban, South Africa, November 28–December 9, 2012. The Harvard Project [on Climate Agreements] has selected research and insights from its library relevant to the deliberations of the parties.”

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“Playing the jobs card can keep people from the discussing full costs and benefits of regulation. Which, says Harvard Business school professor Robert Stavins, is a problem.

ROBERT STAVINS: This is an area where unfortunately one has to curse both sides of the debate.”

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