OPINION COMMENTARY:

Imagine if every package – bottles, boxes, or phials – didn’t go to waste but was reused, helping to reduce pollution and conserve resources. Rajan Mehta advocates for a Common Design Reusable Packaging system to standardize reusable containers across industries, reduce environmental impact, and create a more sustainable cycle.

Building a robust corporate transition plan is challenging yet critical to achieve our net zero ambitions. University of Oxford Professor Ben Caldecott, Co-Head of the TPT Secretariat, discusses with Emily Chien, ALI Senior Fellow, how the “gold standard” TPT Disclosure Framework will transform the way companies and governments develop, monitor and apply transition planning best practices to help make businesses more sustainable.

Dr. Satchit Balsari highlights his transformative work with SEWA, India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, and its “economy of nurturance,” exploring resilient, community-driven strategies for survival and adaptation. He emphasizes the urgent need for interdisciplinary solutions, local innovation, and data-informed policies to tackle complex global challenges.

At the edge of the Sahara, a revolution is growing — one rooted in traditional agriculture that holds the key to Africa’s climate resilience. While the continent contributes just 4% to global emissions, it bears the brunt of climate change's devastating impacts. Discover how local knowledge and ancient farming techniques are being revitalized to restore ecosystems, and bolster food security.

Methane is one of the most potent planet-warming greenhouse gases and is drawing intense global attention. Reducing methane emissions is the fastest way to reduce near-term planetary warming and advance our global climate, health, food security and energy transition goals. Prof. Robert Stavins leads a cross-disciplinary Research Cluster focused on reducing methane emissions, at the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. Learn how Harvard-wide and broader global collaboration across law, economics, engineering, cutting edge satellite monitoring, private industry, and the COP28 “Global Methane Pledge” signed by 150 countries, are driving progress.

Global demand for high-integrity carbon credits is significant. However, current voluntary carbon markets lack transparency, consistency, and high-quality standards, hindering their potential contribution and impact on climate change. Annette Nazareth is spearheading the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market focused on more efficiently mobilizing finance toward mitigation and climate resilient development with greater speed and scale.

One way to mitigate the global climate crisis is to help developing countries build a carbon neutral energy and industrial infrastructure. This, however, requires both money and technology, resources possessed largely only by developed countries. In this article, Rajan Mehta analyzes the issue of emissions responsibility and suggests a pragmatic approach to limit climate change and reduce its impact.

There is currently an intense political divide in the United States regarding the integration of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors into the investment decisions of public and private pension funds. The key issues are whether ESG factors are appropriate considerations in furthering optimal financial performance and whether it is appropriate for plan fiduciaries to consider potential collateral social or environmental benefits in making their investment decisions. David Cifrino discusses the history, fiduciary law, financial performance and regulation associated with ESG investing.

The world-wide spike in energy prices, instigated by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, has resulted in calls to “drill baby drill” by some, and celebrated by others as an accelerant to efforts to transition to a greener future. Who is right? Are they both right to some degree? Joseph Aldy, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment, gives his views on our current energy crisis.

Anyone who is interested in a presidential appointment must navigate a complicated process in order to be confirmed by the Senate. Sarah Bloom Raskin explains what it entails and tells why she withdrew her name from consideration for a post on the Federal Reserve in 2022.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION SERIES:

The Biden administration has moved rapidly in its first 100 days to renew our government’s efforts to stem climate change. The Department of Energy and Department of Interior will both play outsized roles among the federal agencies in helping to implement Biden’s climate agenda.

COVID-19 RECOVERY SERIES:

A conversation with Dr. John M. Reilly, a Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, and Co-Director, emeritus of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. As an energy, environmental and agricultural economist, he has focused on understanding the contribution of human activities to global environmental change and the effects of environmental change on the economy and society, and solutions to the threats of global environmental change.

Pedro Mariani discusses why international cooperation on climate change has substantially failed so far and whether we should hope for better outcomes in the near future.

As climate-induced wildfires and hurricanes ravage America, our lives, our livelihoods, and the stability and security of our financial markets are in danger. Steven Rothstein and Veena Ramani, from Ceres, discuss how climate change is a systemic risk and we need our elected representatives to use their power to hold regulators to account for immediate climate change action.