The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) at Sciences Po Paris co-sponsored a workshop on March 16, 2021: “Prospects for Carbon Pricing in Europe and the United States.” U.S. participants included Harvard faculty members, as well as colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Environmental Defense Fund. European participants were based in Science Po’s CEE and French Economic Observatory, joined by an affiliate at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics. Participants represented the disciplinary perspectives of both economics and political science.
There are links at the bottom of this page to the combined agenda and participant list, as well as to most presentations.
The workshop was motivated by renewed efforts in the United States to re-engage internationally – including on climate-change policy. The United States has re-joined the Paris Agreement and is committed to working with Europe to advance the Agreement's goals. The hosts of the workshop wished to take advantage of this opportunity for renewed transatlantic academic dialogue on climate change policy – and, in particular, on carbon pricing, a topic of mutual interest. Carbon pricing plays a key role in efforts by Europe – and some U.S. states – to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The agenda included a normative assessment of carbon pricing – examining the relative merits of alternative carbon pricing systems, and of carbon pricing and policy instruments relying on uniform standards. Participants then examined prospects for carbon pricing in Europe and the United States – focusing largely on sub-national carbon-pricing systems in the latter.
Presentations:
Session 1: Normative Assessment of Carbon-Pricing and Other Policy Instruments
Robert Stavins, Harvard University: “Relative Merits of Alternative Carbon-Pricing Systems”
Session 2: Positive Political Economy and Politics of Carbon Pricing
Joesph Aldy, Harvard University: “Status of and Prospects for Carbon Pricing in the United States”