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2017

Saying No to Energy Savings. Economics is Helping to Explain the Energy-Efficiency Gap.

December 18, 2017

Whether replacing a light bulb or buying a car, investing in energy-efficient products can help people to reduce their carbon footprint while saving money. So why do consumers still opt for energy-inefficient goods?

In a new paper in the December issue of the Journal of Economic Literature, co-authors Todd Gerarden,...

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HEEP Director with Current and Former Pre-Doctoral Fellows Publish Article on Energy-Efficiency Gap

December 11, 2017

Robert Stavins, HEEP Director, Todd Gerarden, HEEP Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and Richard Newell, former HEEP Pre-Doctoral Fellow, co-authored an article published in December 2017 in the Journal of Economic Literature, titled “Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap.” Mr. Gerarden is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Dr. Newell received his Ph.D. in Public Policy in...

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NPR "On Point" Discussion from and regarding the Climate Negotiations in Bonn, Germany

November 16, 2017
Tom Ashbrook interviews Professor Stavins on National Public Radio’s “On Point,” on November 14, 2017, at the UNFCCC’s COP-23 in Bonn, Germany. Included in the interview, which begins at 30 minutes into the one-hour program, is consideration of the international implications of the announced intention of the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2020.

Harvard Global Institute Grants Expand Scope

September 29, 2017
[Harvard Gazette ]...Daniel Nocera, Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy, and Rohini Pande, Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy, will bring Nocera’s clean-energy innovation — the “bionic leaf” — together with Pande’s policy research to inform the adoption of the clean energy generated by the bionic leaf in India. The collaboration will not only set the stage for the successful introduction and scaling of bionic leaf technology in India, but also create the framework to accelerate the adoption of... Read more about Harvard Global Institute Grants Expand Scope

Our View: Bipartisan Carbon Tax No Longer Pie in Sky

September 16, 2017
[Arizona Daily Sun ]...The recent monster storms that many scientists are linking to warmer oceans heated by carbon-based greenhouses gases might be another factor in the drive toward carbon taxes. One former skeptic, noted Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, is now not only on board the tax but worries that in its current form it might be too little too late. He is for tying the increase in the tax per ton of carbon to global temperatures and other warming indicators. Read more about Our View: Bipartisan Carbon Tax No Longer Pie in Sky

Learning from Thirty Years of Experience with Cap-and-Trade Systems

August 25, 2017

[Robert Stavins' Blog] “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The implication of this famous line (often misquoted as “those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”) from philosopher George Santayana’s 1905 book, The Life of Reason, Volume I – Reason in Common Sense, is that we are wise to learn from our mistakes.  This is undoubtedly true, as is the parallel recommendation that we are wise to learn from...

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Ship

Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy

August 1, 2017

[Harvard Business Review ] Forest Reinhardt and Michael Toffel: The United States Navy operates on the front lines of climate change. It manages tens of billions of dollars of assets on every continent and on every ocean. Those assets—ships, submarines, aircraft, naval bases, and the technology that links everything together—take many years to design and build and then have decades of useful life.... Read more about Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy