Environment and Energy
How can governments create environmentally sustainable energy policies that are feasible technologically and politically? How can policymakers best navigate the tensions between science and politics?
Latest Article
Interview with the former Indonesian Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan: Southeast Asia’s Future
On April 23, 2024, HKS Student Policy Review Senior Editor John McQuillan spoke with Gita Wirjawan. The coversation focused on a range of topics related to the future of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Gita Wirjawan’s public service has included positions as Indonesia’s minister of trade, chairman of its Investment Coordinating Board, and chair of a […]Explore all Articles
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From the Margins: How Gender and Kitchens Got Sidetracked in the Energy Debate
02.9.24
Disproportionately affecting women, lack of access to clean fuels for cooking leads to 3.7 million untimely deaths annually from household air pollution.
Interview with Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
11.15.23
On November 13, 2023, HKS Student Policy Review Senior Editor Jane Petersen spoke with former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The conversation covered a range of topics including what other countries can learn from Colombia’s peace agreement, poverty alleviation efforts, and the fight against climate change.
What Carbon Market Debates are Missing
07.18.23
Carbon markets can be understood as a three-legged stool on which part of our climate goals rests; if one of the legs is missing, the stool falls. Unfortunately, today’s carbon market debates focus on two of those three legs whilst ignoring the other.
The Importance of Aggregate Climate Data for Global Climate Progress From Emerging Economies
06.28.23
Harmonized data lies at the heart of the climate agenda, but do we pay enough attention to the development of the figures that we see? Do we ever question how the figures are calculated?
The Future of Food in Latin America: Embracing Insect Protein
06.21.23
Alternative protein sources, such as insects, have emerged as promising solutions that could help reduce the environmental impact of food production while providing a nutritious and accessible protein source.
Global Governance, Climate Change, and International Security: Aligning Issues to Compel Action
06.17.23
Failure to recognize and manage the nexus of the relationship between climate and security could have significant ramifications in the future between and within countries and communities. Without considering these, efforts to promote sustainable development and peace may fall short.
Between a rock and a hard place: The energy transition in Mexico as a consumer
06.16.23
In 2022, Naturgy — Mexico City’s natural gas monopoly — left me without service for three weeks. Working in the renewable energy sector, I knew what to do: end the gas contract and get both an electric stove and a water heater. That is the recipe I share in any energy transition report: “electrify” to […]
How the Climate Crisis Compounds Risks for Incarcerated Workers
10.26.22
A version of this article was originally published in August 2021 on Climate XChange’s “Intersection” blog. PPR thanks Climate XChange for their permission to reprint it here. The summer of 2021 was marked by a series of climate-fueled disasters: heat waves with disastrous consequences, dramatic rainfall and intense thunderstorms, an earlier and potentially more destructive […]
Why climate action is critical to the future of unemployed youth in South Africa
09.29.22
Cover photo source: @JamesGranelli_ on Twitter Twenty-five years ago, a group of South African high schoolers from an under-resourced township school rallied and made their way around the globe to participate in a youth environmental summit hosted in the US. What was unusual was the rhetoric around it. “Why is a group of colored youth […]
Woke on Coke: Young Cocaine Consumers Fuel Social and Environmental Devastation in Colombia
08.2.22
I could feel the bass of the music thumping in my thoracic cavity. The soles of my shoes were sticky with the beer that had spilled on the floor when I saw Eva inhaling a line of white powder off the kitchen countertop.
Busting the Cycle: Forming Clean Energy Markets in Oil-Dependent States
06.20.22
Calls for a green industrial revolution and transition away from greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting forms of energy are anything but novel. The newest to make the call is the International Energy Agency (IEA), which calls in a 2021 report for immediately halting oil and gas development and achieving net-zero emissions from electricity generation by 2040.1 […]
The infrastructure gap in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030
06.19.22
If LAC wants to close its infrastructure gap and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the region will need to significantly increase investment in infrastructure. The pre-pandemic annual investment level of 1.4% of GDP compares poorly with the 3.1% needed to close the gap. Finding innovative policies to finance them would ensure that […]