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Read Professor Stavins newest blog offering thoughts on his recent podcast discussion with Amy Harder, the founding Executive Editor of Cipher News.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) assembled a panel of leading academics and government officials to discuss strategies for achieving significant methane emissions reductions at relatively low costs at an official COP 28 Side Event last Wednesday (Dec. 6).  The event, titled “Reducing Global Methane Emissions: Imperatives, Opportunities, and Challenges,” was moderated by HPCA Director Robert Stavins.

The panelists, in addition to Stavins, were:

Claire Henly, Senior Advisor for Non-CO2 GHGs, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate;

Daniel Jacob, Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Harvard University; and

Helena Varkkey, Associate Professor of Environmental Politics and Governance, Universiti Malaya.

HPCA Side Event panelists (from L-to-R): Claire Henly, Helena Varkkey, Robert Stavins, Daniel Jacob, and James Stock

James Stock, the Harold Hitching Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, and Director of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, framed the context of the discussion with opening remarks.

“This audience needs no words of introduction to why methane provides immediate challenges, urgent opportunities, but also the possibility of driving quick emissions reductions that could ease our transition path as we deal with more challenging carbon dioxide emissions down the road,” he said.

Stavins provided an overview of the new Harvard Initiative on Reducing Global Methane Emissions, one of five research clusters anchored within the Salata Institute. He explained to attendees that the initiative is designed to engage stakeholders in government, business, NGOs, and international organizations in research and policy solutions to address the methane challenge.

“Focusing on methane can give the world time to bend the curve on CO₂ emissions, conduct research on carbon mitigation and on carbon removal, and then begin to implement longer term strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change,” he remarked. “This is not an either or. This is not methane instead of CO₂. This is methane and CO₂, and for that matter, other greenhouse gases.”

Jacob discussed the research that he and his team are doing to monitor methane emissions from their sources using sophisticated satellite technology.

“Quantifying methane emissions is essential for climate action, but it is a very difficult task,” he explained. Yet the task is becoming more achievable, he said, by mapping so-called “global hot spots” of emissions, many of which are located in the global south, and can be attributed to oil and gas, coal, livestock, rice, wetlands, and landfills.

Henly spoke of the Biden Administration’s efforts to address the methane challenge, including the Methane Finance Sprint, launched in April with the goal of raising $200 million to assist low- and middle-income nations to fund emissions reduction programs across all sectors. The Sprint has now raised more than $1 billion from governments, the European Commission, philanthropies, and the private sector. This is part of the Global Methane Pledge.

It was also announced during COP 28, Henly explained, that six of the world’s largest private sector companies have launched the “Dairy Methane Alliance,” in which participants, including Nestle, pledge to begin reporting methane emissions by mid-2024, and develop action plans to reduce their methane emissions before the end of the year.

In her presentation, Varkkey discussed the progress Malaysia is making in climate policy. Methane, she said, represents approximately 15 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country, a number that is expected to decline after the government signed onto the Global Methane Pledge two years ago.

“It is really important for Malaysia to have decisive methane action even while we are planning for CO₂ and other reductions as well,” she said. While the government hasn’t yet developed a national methane reduction action plan, Varkkey remarked, there are indications that emissions are already dropping due to positive actions by the private sector.

The panel discussion was followed by a lively Q-and-A during which panelists responded to questions ranging from how landfill emissions are measured, the importance of public awareness of methane emissions, links between methane and nitric oxide in the agriculture sector, potential new technologies that can be used to abate methane emissions, the prospects for a binding international agreement to impose costs on methane emissions, and the ways in which Harvard University is leveraging its platform to deepen collaboration with the Chinese government, academic institutions, and companies around climate change issues.

Although the idea of carbon pricing is attracting more interest and support across the world, there remains much debate surrounding which carbon pricing scheme is most practical, effective, and politically pragmatic. HPCA Director Robert Stavins presented his assessment on the similarities and differences between the two primary schemes on Wednesday (Dec. 6) during the 9th Global Climate Change Think Tank Forum side event at COP28 in Dubai.

The event, “Application of Low Emission Development Strategies and Progress of Global Energy Transition,” was held in the China Pavilion in the Blue Zone.

Professor Robert Stavins speaking at the 9th Global Climate Change Think Tank Forum side event at COP 28 in Dubai, Dec. 6, 2023.

Stavins remarked that carbon taxes and cap-and-trade are two of the mechanisms through which nations and regions can reduce their CO2 emissions aligned with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outlined under the Paris Agreement. He focused his remarks on the distinctions between the two mechanisms, explaining that they are perfectly equivalent regarding incentives for emission reduction, aggregate abatement costs, and effects on competitiveness.

There are significant differences, he explained, in terms of their impact on carbon-price volatility, interactions with complementary policies, potential market manipulation, and the complexity of their administrative requirements.

Other keynote speeches on the Forum agenda covered topics ranging from global changes under carbon neutrality to the race and cooperation for clean energy investment between China and the European Union. Wang Can, Dean of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University delivered remarks on the main findings of the “Global Carbon Neutrality Annual Progress Report.”