If we’re going to limit global temperature increases to 2...

On March 7, the Harvard-China Project co-sponsored a panel on the topic of “China and Asia in a Changing Climate: Natural Science for the Non-Scientist” as part of Harvard University Asia Center’s Asia Beyond the Headlines Seminar Series. Harvard-China Project Faculty Chair, Mike McElroy, moderated the discussion. During the panel,...

The Harvard Law School Library, along with the Harvard-China Project, East Asian Legal Studies, and the HLS Environmental Law Society, recently co-hosted Barbara Finamore, senior attorney and Asia senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), for a book talk and discussion on her latest release,...

This fall the Harvard-China Project continued its investigations of the “China 2030/2050: Energy and Environmental Challenges for the Future” theme sponsored by the Harvard Global Institute (HGI). Our community reflected on the Summer 2018 Undergrad Research Assistantship program in China, during...

Warming waters in the Indian Ocean is weakening monsoon circulation and decreasing wind speeds

This article, written by Leah Burrows, originally appeared on the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences website. Harvard Magazine also wrote a piece about this research, which can be...

This article by Chris P. Nielsen, China Project Executive Director, and ...

A Harvard Gazette article by Al Powell

... Read more about China Project Organized Harvard Undergrads to Conduct Summer Environmental Research in China

It is rarely possible to conduct controlled experiments in the social sciences owing to the vast number of variables that, in a “real-world” setting, can almost never be manipulated to create the ideal experimental conditions. However, there are occasionally instances when the unintended effects of certain policies create circumstances that are like an experiment, called a natural experiment. When the combination of a vehicle restriction policy in Beijing and the Chinese superstition about the...

A Financial Times article examining the sometimes-ambiguous environmental benefits of electric vehicles in China, whose energy market has yet to fully transition out of being fossil fuel-dominated, cites the findings of a China Project study... Read more about Financial Times Cites Recent China Project Study Exploring Environmental Implications of Electric Vehicle Charging in China

This spring the Harvard-China Project continued its investigations of the “China 2030/2050” theme sponsored by the Harvard Global Institute (HGI). Our community explored a number of pressing issues, including a Nature Energy paper on the environmental implications of electric vehicle charging in China. The research, which offers a strategy for reducing CO₂ emissions and improving air quality with electric vehicles in Beijing, was authored by a Harvard-Tsinghua...

By Jonathan Mingle

Imagine flipping a switch and lighting your home with hydropower from southern Brazil, solar power from the Sahara Desert, or wind power from the High Arctic. If Liu Zhenya’s plan comes to fruition, sourcing clean energy from the farthest reaches of the globe could become just that routine for billions of electricity users by 2050.... Read more about Commentary: Does the path to a low-carbon future run through a global grid?

The paper, "Wind-generated Electricity in China: Decreasing Potential, Inter-annual Variability and Association with Changing Climate," explores the effects of rising surface temperatures on wind speeds. It was co-authored by Peter Sherman, Xinyu Chen, and Michael B. McElroy, and named...

To combat climate change, reduce air pollution, and establish greater energy independence, China has been pushing hard for a nation-wide transition to renewable energy, and is now home to the world’s largest market for wind-generated electricity. The installed capacity for wind generation in China accounts for over one third of the global total. Yet a paper recently published in Nature Scientific Reports and covered by the Washington Post found that climate change might be threatening wind power — one of the very strategies that countries are relying on to help them achieve the goal set forth in the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.... Read more about Commentary: Climate Change Might Be A Threat to Wind Power

This fall the Harvard-China Project continued its investigations of the “China 2030/2050” theme sponsored by the Harvard Global Institute (HGI). Our community continued its robust research into China's pressing environmental challenges, including the formation of haze pollution; the effects of carbon pricing policies; and the impact of climate change on renewable energy resources.... Read more about China Project Fall 2017 Newsletter

The Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment is pleased to announce that the Project’s faculty, researchers, and staff have adopted an open-access policy. They unanimously endorsed the policy on September 21, 2017 to grant Harvard a nonexclusive and worldwide right to distribute “the fruits of [their] research and scholarship as widely as possible.”... Read more about China Project Adopts an Open-Access Policy

This summer was active and fruitful for the Harvard-China Project and its investigations of the “China 2030/2050” theme sponsored by the Harvard Global Institute (HGI). Summer provided time for intensive research progress in fields as diverse as haze pollution chemistry; grid integration of renewable power; household consumption, welfare and inequality; valuing environmental health risk over time; the impacts of interprovincial trade on air pollution; the carbon cycle in northern China; and the effects of changing land use and income on travel behavior in Chengdu.... Read more about China Project Summer 2017 Newsletter