Todd Stern at Harvard Book Store presenting Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next In conversation with Robert Stavins
When:
Tuesday, Oct 08, 2024 7:00p -
8:00p
Tuesday, Oct 08, 2024 7:00p -
8:00p
Where:
Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Business & Professional, Lectures & Conferences, Social Good, University
Event website:
https://www.harvard.com/event/todd_stern_at_harvard_book_store
Harvard Book Store welcomes Todd Stern—former Special Envoy for Climate Change at the Department of State, where he was President Barack Obama’s chief climate negotiator-—to celebrate the release of Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next. He will be joined in conversation by Robert Stavins—A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.
About Landing the Paris Climate Agreement
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change was one of the most difficult and hopeful achievements of the twenty-first century: 195 nations finally agreed, after 20 years of trying, to establish an ambitious, operational regime to address one of the greatest civilizational challenges of our time. In Landing the Paris Climate Agreement, Todd Stern, the chief US negotiator on climate change, provides an engaging account from inside the rooms where it happened: the full, charged, seven-year story of how the Paris Agreement came to be, following an arc from Copenhagen, to Durban, to the secret U.S.-China climate deal in 2014, to Paris itself.
With a storyteller’s gift for character, suspense, and detail, Stern crafts a high-stakes narrative that illuminates the strategy, policy, politics, and diplomacy that made Paris possible. Introducing readers to a vivid cast of characters, including Xie Zenhua, Vice Minister of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Bo Lidegaard, chief strategist for Denmark’s Prime Minster, and Indian minister Jairam Ramesh, Stern, who worked alongside President Barack Obama and Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, depicts the pitfalls and challenges overcome, the shifting alliances, the last-minute maneuvering, and the ultimate historic success. The book concludes with a final chapter that describes key developments since 2015 and the author’s reflections on what needs to be done going forward to contain the climate threat.
A unique peek behind the curtain of one of the most important international agreements of our time, Landing the Paris Climate Agreement is a vital and fascinating read for anyone who cares about the future of our one shared home.
Praise for Landing the Paris Climate Agreement:
"US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern’s insightful environmental history Landing the Paris Climate Agreement covers how the groundbreaking global pact came to be, explains its significance, and outlines the next steps...A legacy project, Landing the Paris Climate Agreement is an incisive history text covering one instance of world leaders coming together to combat climate change." —Foreword Reviews
"A crash course in the intricacies of multinational climate change policy." —Kirkus Reviews
Bio
Todd Stern is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a nonresident distinguished fellow at the Asia Society, concentrating on climate change. He served from January 2009 until April 2016 as the Special Envoy for Climate Change at the Department of State, where he was President Barack Obama's chief climate negotiator.
Robert N. Stavins is the A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy & Economic Development, Director of Graduate Studies for the Doctoral Programs in Public Policy and in Political Economy and Government, Cochair of the MPP/MBA and MPA/ID/MBA Joint Degree Programs. He is the Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a University Fellow of Resources for the Future, former Chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Economics Advisory Board, and a member of the editorial councils of scholarly periodicals. His research has examined diverse areas of environmental economics and policy and has appeared in a variety of economics, law, and policy journals, as well as several books. Stavins directed Project 88, a bipartisan effort cochaired by former Senator Timothy Wirth and the late Senator John Heinz to develop innovative approaches to environmental problems. He has been a consultant to government agencies, international organizations, corporations, and advocacy groups. He holds a BA in philosophy from Northwestern University, an MS in agricultural economics from Cornell, and a PhD in economics from Harvard.
Masking Policy
Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.
