Blog Posts: An Economic View of the Environment

December 15, 2023 What Really Happened at COP-28 in Dubai

December 8, 2023 Observations from Dubai Midway through COP-28

November 27, 2023 What to Expect at COP-28 in Dubai

November 8, 2023 Adam Smith, Methane Emissions, and Climate Change

October 10, 2023 Private Sector Initiatives to Address Climate Change

September 8, 2023 The Special and Important Case of Electricity in Climate Change

August 8, 2023 Electricity Sector Regulation, Carbon Pricing, and Climate Policy

July 13, 2023 Launching a Harvard Initiative to Reduce Global Methane Emissions

July 6, 2023 Studying the Real Impacts of Climate Change Policies

June 1, 2023 The Challenge Posed to U.S. Climate Policy by Political Polarization

May 1, 2023 An Expression of Hope and Frustration re Climate Change Progress

April 10, 2023 Forty-Plus Years of Leadership on Climate and Sustainability

March 8, 2023 Vision for Energy Transition

February 17, 2023 A Soup-to-Nuts Initiative to Reduce Global Methane Emissions

February 8, 2023 An Experienced Economist Reflects on Government Service, Carbon Pricing, and Climate Policy

January 9, 2023 A Long-Time Participant and Observer Places the Climate Talks in Historical Perspective

November 25, 2022 Another Informed View of the Outcome of COP-27 in Sharm El Sheikh

November 22, 2022 What Really Happened at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh?

November 8, 2022 What to Expect at COP-27 in Sharm El Sheikh

October 6, 2022 Leading Academic Economist Offers Optimism about Climate Change Policy

September 8, 2022 Thinking About and Measuring Another Greenhouse Gas – Methane

August 8, 2022 Regulatory Skepticism and Technological Optimism from a Prominent Environmental Lawyer

July 5, 2022 Who Better to Reflect on the “Global Energy Crisis”?

June 8, 2022 Bumps Along the Energy-Transition Road

May 9, 2022 Recalling the Past and Looking to the Future

April 11, 2022 Can Europe Decarbonize in the Midst of a Geopolitical Crisis?

April 8, 2022 The Dean of Wine Economists Talks About the Impacts of Climate Change

March 11, 2022 U.S. Climate Change Policy in an Era of Political Polarization

March 8, 2022 The Social Cost of Carbon Redux

February 8, 2022 Energy, Climate Change, and U.S. Regulatory Policy

January 7, 2022 Thinking about the Institutional Dimensions of Climate Change Policy

December 9, 2021 A Call for Pragmatic Climate Policies

December 2, 2021 A Particularly Valuable Perspective from Europe on COP26

November 19, 2021 Separating Signal from Noise at COP26

November 14, 2021 What Happened in Glasgow at COP26?

November 7, 2021 It’s Not Too Soon to Take Climate Change Adaptation Seriously

October 27, 2021 What to Expect at COP-26 in Glasgow

October 8, 2021 Water Policy and Environmental Justice

September 8, 2021 Insights about Climate Change Policy from Europe, New Zealand, and the USA

August 9, 2021 Policy Options for Addressing Climate Change

July 24, 2021 Assessing China's National Carbon Market

July 8, 2021 Obama's Science Advisor Speaks Out on Biden's Climate Policy

June 8, 2021 Reflecting on Economics, Politics, and Climate Policy

May 7, 2021 Reflecting on Federal Regulatory Policy and the Future of Electric Vehicles

May 3, 2021 The Path Ahead for U.S. Climate Change Policy

April 8, 2021 A New Day for U.S. Climate Change Policy?

March 5, 2021 Reflecting on the Causes and Consequences of the Texas Energy Crisis

February 8, 2021 History May Convey Some Hope for Biden's Climate Agenda

January 27, 2021 The Future of European Climate Change Policy

January 14, 2021 International Climate Change Policy & Action in the Biden Administration

January 5, 2021 Reflecting on Trump's Record and Anticipating Biden's Performance

December 8, 2020 Is the Oil and Gas Industry Undergoing a Transformation?

November 19, 2020 Prospects for Climate Policy under the Incoming Biden Administration 

November 13, 2020 Prospects for Energy and Climate Change Policy under the New U.S. Administration

November 9, 2020 What Do the 2020 U.S. Election Results Portend for Climate Change Policy?

October 30, 2020 Anticipated Impacts of 2020 U.S. Election on Climate Policy

October 19, 202 Greening an Economic Stimulus: Lessions from Experience

October 8, 2020 Guarded Optimism about the Paris Climate Agreement

October 1, 2020 Four Years Have Passed, and It's Been Even Worse than I Anticipated

September 8, 2020 Carbon Pricing, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Green Economic Recovery

September 4, 2020 A Broad Ranging Conversation from Energy Policy to Social Injustice

August 20, 2020 Opportunities and Risks for Green Economic Recovery

August 6, 2020 Global Climate Change and the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry

July 15, 2020 The European Green Deal

July 14, 2020 Geopolitics and Upheaval in Oil Markets

July 8, 2020 A Positive Take on the Future of International Climate Negotiations

June 8, 2020 Bringing Ambition and Pragmatism to Climate Change Policy

May 8, 2020 Global Climate Change Negotiations: Learning from the Past to Think Carefully about the Future

April 8, 2020 How Have Companies Responded to the Coronavirus Pandemic and Climate Change?

April 3, 2020 What Can Economics Really Have to Say About COVID-19 Policies?

March 27, 2020 Will the COVID-19 Pandemic Bring About Long-Term Societal Changes?

March 9, 2020 A Blast from the Past: U.S. Climate Policy Then and Now

February 18, 2020 New Publication on Chinese Climate Change Policy

February 7, 2020 Important, Despite the Controversy - Geoengineering Research

January 8, 2020 A Firsthand Account of European Carbon-Pricing Evolution

January 7, 2020 Economics Can Still Help Solve the Climate Crisis

December 19, 2019 COP-25 Disappointment Should Not Be Due to Lack of Aspirations for Future Ambition, But to Lack of Support for Global Carbon Markets

December 15, 2019 What Did (and Did Not) Happen at COP-25 Climate Talks in Madrid?

December 11, 2019 A Second Podcast Discussion from the UN Climate Negotiations in Madrid

December 8, 2019 New Podcast on Carbon Markets & International Cooperation, Direct from UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid

December 5, 2019 What to Expect at COP-25 in Madrid

November 8, 2019 Interview with Nick Stern in Second Episode of "Environmental Insights"

November 2, 2019 Fifty Years of Policy Evolution under the Clean Air Act

October 11, 2019 A Key Issue for the Upcoming Climate Conference in Santiago

October 8, 2019 We Have Launched "Environmental Insights," a New Podcast

October 2, 2019 Memorial Service at Harvard for Martin L. Weitzman

September 9, 2019 A Gift that Keeps on Giving: The Contributions of Martin Weitzman to Environmental Economics

August 26, 2019 Sub-National Climate Change Policy in China

May 30, 2019 The Future of U.S. Carbon Pricing Policy

February 26, 2019 Economics of the Environment

December 20, 2018 Climate Negotiations in Poland Advanced Implementation of the Paris Agreement

November 26, 2018 Harvard Project on Climate Agreements at COP-24

October 30, 2018 Controversial, But Important: The Governance of Solar Geoengineering Deployment

October 16, 2018 Martin Weitzman's Contributions to Environmental Economics 

September 7, 2018 Inviting you to a Celebration of the Contributions of Martin Weitzman to Environmental Economics

May 16, 2018 Will the Paris Agreement Help or Hinder Cooperation among Nations?

May 5, 2018 California's Crude Oil Production and its Climate Change Policies

April 8, 2018 Reflections on Economics and Policy Making in the Environmental Domain

March 13, 2018 Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State: What Should We Make of This?

February 6, 2018 Placing U.S. Government Views on Climate Change into Historical Context

January 7, 2018 What Should We Make of China’s Announcement of a National CO2 Trading System?

December 3, 2017 If Tillerson Departs State Department, Will We Go from Bad to Worse?

October 31, 2017 Linking Heterogeneous Climate Policies (and Activities at COP-23 in Bonn)

August 25, 2017 Learning from Thirty Years of Experience with Cap-and-Trade Systems

July 31, 2017 Environmental Economics – A Personal Perspective

June 6, 2017 Trump’s Paris Withdrawal: The Nail in the Coffin of U.S. Global Leadership

June 5, 2017 Why Trump Pulled the U.S. Out of the Paris Accord

April 22, 2017 Why the U.S. Should Remain in the Paris Climate Agreement

March 31, 2017 Delighted and Depressed

February 5, 2017 An Explanation and Apology

January 3, 2017 Trying to Remain Positive

November 10, 2016 What Does the Trump Victory Mean for Climate Change Policy?

October 9, 2016 This is Not a Time for Political Neutrality

September 20, 2016 A Key Moment for California Climate Policy

August 1, 2016 Market Mechanisms in the Paris Climate Agreement: International Linkage under Article 6.2

May 2, 2016 Misleading Talk about Decoupling CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth

April 4, 2016 The Future Role of Economics in the IPCC

January 31, 2016 Can the WTO Take a Lesson from the Paris Climate Playbook?

December 12, 2015 Paris Agreement — A Good Foundation for Meaningful Progress

November 17, 2015 Paris Can Be a Key Step

October 5, 2015 The Papal Encyclical and Climate Change Policy

September 1, 2015 A Key Element for the Forthcoming Paris Climate Agreement

July 8, 2015 A Key Moment is Coming for the IPCC’s Future

May 27, 2015 Crude Oil Prices, Climate Change, and Global Welfare

May 6, 2015 Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap

March 22, 2015 When Reasonable Policy Discussions Become Unreasonable Personal Attacks

February 26, 2015 The IPCC at a Crossroads

February 2, 2015 A Challenge for the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement

December 14, 2014 Assessing the Outcome of the Lima Climate Talks

December 1, 2014 What to Expect at COP-20 in Lima

November 4, 2014 The Final Stage of IPCC R5 B Last Week's Outcome in Copenhagen

October 20, 2014 What Can Universities Do bout Climate Change?

September 27, 2014 The UN Climate Summit and a Key Issue for the 2015 Paris Agreement

June 19, 2014 What are the Benefits and Costs of EPA's Proposed CO2 Regulation?

June 5, 2014 EPA's Proposed Greenhouse Gas Regulation: Why are Conservatives Attacking its Market‑Based Options?

May 3, 2014 Understanding the IPCC: An Important Follow-Up

April 25, 2014 Is the IPCC Government Approval Process Broken?

March 15, 2014 Can There Be a Positive Prognosis for Climate Negotiations?

January 18, 2014 Will Europe Scrap its Renewables Target? That Would Be Good News for the Economy and for the Environment

November 28, 2013 The Warsaw Climate Negotiations, and Reason for Cautious Optimism

October 22, 2013 Climate Change, Public Policy, and the University

September 12, 2013 Remembering Ronald Coase's Contributions

August 16, 2013 Economics and Politics in California: Cap‑and‑Trade Allowance Allocation and Trade Exposure

July 30, 2013 The Importance of Getting it Right in California

June 19, 2013 Thinking bout the Energy-Efficiency Gap

March 17, 2013 On the Origins of Research

February 19, 2013 On Becoming an Environmental Economist

January 27, 2013 The Second Term of the Obama Administration

December 20, 2012 Reflections from Cambridge on the Climate Talks in Doha

December 1, 2012 While International Climate Negotiations Continue, the World's Ninth Largest Economy Takes an Important Step Forward

October 21, 2012 Cap-and-Trade, Carbon Taxes, and My Neighbor's Lovely Lawn

September 2, 2012 A Challenge for Climate Negotiators, and an Opportunity for Scholars

July 21, 2012 Two Notable Events Prompt Examination of an Important Property of Cap-and-Trade

May 26, 2012 Can Market Forces Really be Employed to Address Climate Change?

April 25, 2012 Low Prices a Problem?  Making Sense of Misleading Talk about Cap-and-Trade in Europe and the US

March 16, 2012 If the Durban Platform Opened a Window, Will India and China Close It?

February 3, 2012 Reflections on Twenty Years of Policy Innovation

January 1, 2012 The Platform Opens a Window: An Unambiguous Consequence of the Durban Climate Talks

December 12, 2011 Assessing the Climate Talks C Did Durban Succeed?

November 28, 2011 Can the Durban Climate Negotiations Succeed?

October 30, 2011 The Promise and Problems of Pricing Carbon

September 25, 2011 What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander: Rahm's Doctrine and Mercutio's Complaint

August 11, 2011 The Credit Downgrade and the Congress: Why Polarized Politics Paralyze Public Policy

July 24, 2011 A Golden Opportunity to Please Conservatives and Liberals like

June 10, 2011 Canada's Step way from the Kyoto Protocol Can Be a Constructive Step Forward

May 23, 2011 Misguided Objection to Progressive Policy: The EJ Lawsuit Against Implementation of California's B 32 Climate Policy

April 25, 2011 Good News from the Regulatory Front

March 31, 2011 A Wave of the Future: International Linkage of National Climate Change Policies

February 21, 2011 Reflecting on a Century of Progress and Problems

January 31, 2011 Pursuing Real Environmental Justice in California

January 11, 2011 Renewable Energy Standards: Less Effective, More Costly, but Politically Preferred to Cap‑and‑Trade?

January 8, 2011 Economics of the Environment, Sixth Edition

January 1, 2011 Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen

December 13, 2010 What Happened (and Why): An Assessment of the Cancun Agreements

November 19, 2010 Defining Success for Climate Negotiations in Cancun

October 21, 2010 Both re Necessary, But Neither is Sufficient: Carbon‑Pricing and Technology R&D Initiatives in a Meaningful National Climate Policy

October 1, 2010 AB 32, RGGI, and Climate Change: The National Context of State Policies for a Global Commons Problem

September 11, 2010 In Defense of Markets

July 27, 2010 Beware of Scorched‑Earth Strategies in Climate Debates

June 23, 2010 The Real Options for US Climate Policy

May 18, 2010 Here We Go gain: Closer Look at the Kerry-Lieberman Cap-and-Trade Proposal

April 22, 2010 Eyes on the Prize: Federal Climate Policy Should Preempt State and Regional Initiatives

March 28, 2010 Who Killed Cap-and-Trade?

March 21, 2010 Opportunities and Ironies: Climate Policy in Tokyo, Seoul, Brussels, and Washington

January 5, 2010 Another Copenhagen Outcome: Serious Questions About the Best Institutional Path Forward

December 20, 2009 What Hath Copenhagen Wrought? A Preliminary Assessment of the Copenhagen Accord

December 18, 2009 Chaos and Uncertainty in Copenhagen?

December 14, 2009 Only Private Sector Can Meet Finance Demands of Developing Countries

December 7, 2009 Defining Success for Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen

November 29, 2009 Approaching Copenhagen with a Portfolio of Domestic Commitments

October 22, 2009 Confusion in the Senate Regarding Allowance Allocation

October 5, 2009 Cap-and-Trade versus the Alternatives for U.S. Climate Policy

September 24, 2009 Can Countries Cut Carbon Emissions Without Hurting Economic Growth?

September 21, 2009 Three Pillars of a New Climate Pact

September 16, 2009 Too Good to be True?

September 3, 2009 What is the Future of U.S. Coal?

August 12, 2009 Cap-and-Trade: A Fly in the Ointment? Not Really

July 30, 2009 Policies Can Work in Strange Ways

July 21, 2009 What Role for U.S. Carbon Sequestration?

July 8, 2009 Is Benefit-Cost Analysis Helpful for Environmental Regulation?

June 29, 2009 National Climate Change Policy: A Quick Look Back at Waxman-Markey and the Road Ahead

June 18, 2009 Worried About International Competitiveness? Another Look at the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Proposal

May 27, 2009 The Wonderful Politics of Cap-and-Trade: A Closer Look at Waxman-Markey

May 21, 2009 The New Auto Fuel-Efficiency Standards — Going Beyond the Headlines

May 12, 2009 Straight Talk about Corporate Social Responsibility

April 27, 2009 Does economic analysis shortchange the future?

April 20, 2009 What Baseball Can Teach Policymakers

April 13, 2009 The Making of a Conventional Wisdom

April 6, 2009 Moving Beyond Vintage-Differentiated Regulation

March 31, 2009 Using Markets to Make Fisheries Sustainable

March 19, 2009 A Tale of Two Taxes

March 14, 2009 Misconceptions About Water Pricing

March 7, 2009 Green Jobs

March 3, 2009 As Reservoirs Fall, Prices Should Rise

March 3, 2009 The Myths of Market Prices and Efficiency

February 23, 2009 The Myth of Simple Market Solutions

February 17, 2009 The Myth of the Universal Market

February 6, 2009 Opportunity for a Defining Moment