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Why the US Should Stay in the Paris Climate Agreement

April 20, 2017

[The Boston Globe ] Ban Ki-moon and Robert N. Stavins: In the five decades since the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, remarkable economic growth around the world has been accompanied by significant environmental challenges. Great progress has been made to address many of these challenges, but leaders around the world continue to struggle to address global climate change due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases.

Renewable Energy Tax Cut Rewrite May Be Uphill Battle for GOP

April 16, 2017

[The Washington Times ]...“These tax expenditures don’t represent a shift — there have been no changes in the tax provisions that deliver fossil fuel tax expenditures over the past decade — but an increase in the renewable power investment and output that qualifies for the renewable tax expenditures,” said Joseph Aldy, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School who studies energy and tax policy.

N. Gregory Mankiw

New HEEP Faculty Fellow

April 10, 2017

N. Gregory Mankiw has been named a Faculty Fellow of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Mankiw is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. As a teacher, he has taught macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics, and principles of economics. His research includes work on price adjustment, consumer behavior, financial markets, monetary and fiscal policy, and economic growth. His published articles have appeared in academic journals, such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy Read more about New HEEP Faculty Fellow

Delighted and Depressed

April 8, 2017

[Robert Stavins' blog] I’m pleased to announce that my blog website – An Economic View of the Environment – has been thoroughly cleaned and purged of the malware that had plagued it since the website was attacked in January.  That’s the source of my being delighted.

It’s probably not necessary to state that the source of my “depression” is the ongoing attack by President Trump and his administration on sensible public policy – in the environmental and energy realm, as well as so many others.  In nearly every case, the administration’s Read more about Delighted and Depressed

Why Democrats Should Work With Trump

March 30, 2017

[The New York Times ]...Democrats should also insist that Mr. Trump put new revenue on the table, specifically an economywide carbon tax. Otherwise, it will be difficult if not impossible to finance both a comprehensive tax overhaul and the nation-building infrastructure push Mr. Trump has promised. According to the Harvard economist Joe Aldy, a $25-per-ton carbon tax going up 5 percent a year could raise from $130 to $200 billion a year by 2030. Crucially for Democrats, it would also provide a powerful, market-based alternative for the Read more about Why Democrats Should Work With Trump

Trump Signs Executive Order Unwinding Obama Climate Policies

March 28, 2017

[The New York Times ]...“One of the greatest concerns is what other key countries, including China, India and Brazil, will do when the U.S. reneges on the Paris agreement,” said Robert Stavins, a professor of environmental economics at Harvard, mentioning some of the world’s other largest carbon dioxide polluters.

“The worst-case scenario is that the Paris agreement will unravel,” Mr. Stavins said. “That would be a great tragedy.” Read more about Trump Signs Executive Order Unwinding Obama Climate Policies

Charles River

Harvard Project Receives Award from Harvard University Climate Fund for Second Year

March 16, 2017

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements—a HEEP initiative—received a grant in March 2017 from the Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund for the second year in a row, along with six other programs and projects at Harvard University. The awardees are profiled in an article in the Harvard Gazette. The announcement was also covered in Boston Read more about Harvard Project Receives Award from Harvard University Climate Fund for Second Year

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

March 15, 2017

[Harvard Business School Working Knowledge ]...“We launched the challenge to expose students to the broad array of ways climate change is affecting organizations,” says Mike Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School and the head of the TOM course, who spearheaded the challenge. “It’s affecting the energy sector and agriculture, of course, but it’s also affecting supply chains and operations.”