News + Media
Technology Review | Jan 01, 2009
A leading economist explains why a carbon tax is the best strategy for cutting greenhouse gases and the use of fossil fuels. — Many economists argue that painful though it might be to consumers, the best way to address climate change is to put a "price" on carbon dioxide and other carbon-based...
Technology Review | Jan 01, 2009
Will putting a price on carbon increase the use of renewables? — The cheapest way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is probably to put a price on them. One way to do that is a direct tax. Another is a cap-and-trade system, where the government sets an overall cap on emissions, but individual...
MIT News | Nov 17, 2008
'Partial capture' of emissions could be near-term move — Construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States is in danger of coming to a standstill, partly due to the high cost of the requirement -- whether existing or anticipated -- to capture all emissions of carbon dioxide, an...
MIT News | Nov 13, 2008
Researchers at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research have produced a report concerning key design issues of proposed "cap-and-trade" programs that are under consideration in the United States as a way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The first contribution of the three-part...
MIT News | Oct 29, 2008
According to a team led by MIT researchers, the amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007, bringing to an end a period of about a decade in which atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas were essentially stable. Methane levels in the atmosphere have more than tripled since pre-...
MIT News | Oct 03, 2008
MIT has announced the launch of the Environmental Research Council to elevate and expand the Institute's leadership in this critical area of study. The goal is to create a robust Institute-wide collaboration comparable to the MIT Energy Initiative. Global Change Program participants on the council...
In The News
MIT News | Sep 08, 2008
A group of MIT-affiliated cyclists hope to fuel themselves from New York to Washington in a few weeks to raise awareness -- and money -- for climate change initiatives. The nine graduate students, researchers and friends are all planning to take part in the Climate Ride 2008, a five-day, 320-mile...
CEEPR Web Spotlight | Sep 01, 2008
Richard Schmalensee takes over as Director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) as of September 2008. Most recently, Prof. Schmalensee served as the Dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management from 1998 through 2007. He had a previous stint as the Director of CEEPR...
MIT News | Aug 20, 2008
Sloan's Sterman sees flawed reasoning at root of problem.
Why is the general public not more concerned about the potential consequences of climate change? For many risks, such as the risk of a plane crash, the public is far more fearful than the evidence shows, observes John Sterman, the Jay W....
In The News
MIT News | Jul 01, 2008
Says policy-making requires ambitious short-term goals.
Long-term climate change policy in the United States and abroad is likely to change very slowly, warns an MIT professor who says the lack of future flexibility argues for stronger short-term goals to reduce carbon emissions.