News + Media
Jul 01, 2017
Water available for irrigation will be affected by climate and increasing demand from other sectors, with consequences for energy-water-land interactions.
Commentary
IIASA | Jun 29, 2017
Even if we cannot predict the climate and its impacts with precision, that does not mean that the best strategy is to do nothing, writes MIT Joint Program Deputy Director Sergey Paltsev in IIASA Options Magazine
Despite 193 countries adopting the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, and its entrance into force in November 2016, the issue of climate change is still hotly debated. People question the realism of both the targets—limiting global temperature rise this century to “well below 2°C above...
News Release
Jun 28, 2017
Sarah Fletcher receives new graduate fellowship and “Best Presentation” award
From 1997 to 2009, Melbourne, Australia experienced what was ultimately called the Millennium Drought, the worst drought on record in the island continent. To compensate, the city’s water planners invested about $3 billion in 2007 in a 150-million-cubic-meter (MCM)/year reverse osmosis...
Commentary
Climate Home | Jun 27, 2017
Climate Home: China is planning the world’s biggest carbon market, but with little detail given for its design, praise for the scheme is premature. Joint Program research assistant Emil Dimantchev comments.
By Emil Dimantchev
Much hype surrounds China’s national carbon market. Expected to begin later this year, the cap and trade system has been ballyhooed as an “ambitious” climate policy that will deliver a major portion of Beijing’s pledge to the Paris Agreement.
News Brief
Chaire Economie du Climat | Jun 23, 2017
Chaire Economie du Climat: Jonathan B. Wiener, J.D., author of a new essay on the current status and possible future of U.S. climate policies, spoke on this topic at the XL (40th) MIT Global Change Forum in March.
A professor of law and environmental and public policy at Duke University, Jonathan B. Wiener has written widely on U.S., European and international environmental law and risk regulation.
In The News
NPR Marketplace | Jun 22, 2017
NPR Marketplace: MIT Joint Program Co-Director John Reilly comments on the economic and societal impacts of heat waves, which are becoming more frequent under climate change
By Kimberly Adams
When air gets really hot, like 120 degrees hot, it means two things for the air-traveling public in the Southwestern United States. One, your plane will have to go faster to generate enough airflow over its wings to get enough lift to get off the ground. But two, the...
Commentary
Washington Post | Jun 22, 2017
Washington Post: MIT Joint Program-affiliated EAPS Prof. Kerry Emanuel co-authors op-ed critiquing the EPA administrator's call for opposing teams to debate climate change science
By Benjamin Santer, Kerry Emanuel and Naomi Oreskes June 21 at 1:08 PM
Commentary
Around Campus
MIT News | Jun 22, 2017
Funding will establish MIT professorship and support low-carbon energy and climate initiatives
Emily Dahl | MIT Energy Initiative June 21, 2017
Press Inquiries
In The News
FactCheck.org | Jun 20, 2017
FactCheck.org: The 0.2 C figure “reflects only the incremental effect of Paris when built upon all the previous commitments made through the UNFCCC,” and “assumed no further strengthening of national commitments in years after 2030,” says MIT Joint Program Co-Director John Reilly.
By Vanessa Schipani
Posted on June 14, 2017
President Donald Trump and his top environmental official said the Paris Agreement would reduce the global average temperature by only 0.2 degrees Celsius. Former Vice President Al Gore said that’s “not true.” Who’s right?
In The News
MIT Energy Initiative / Energy Futures | Jun 20, 2017
Energy Futures: John Reilly and colleagues in the MIT Joint Program used a comprehensive set of linked models to demonstrate how dramatically the world’s energy system needs to change—within the next few decades—to prevent excessive global warming by 2100
An MIT analysis of the Paris climate agreement finds that—even if all the participating nations meet their pledges—global warming will exceed the 2°C maximum targeted for 2100 as early as 2050. To determine what else is needed, researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of...