A Nobel Prize-winning chemist who identified the cause of the atmospheric ozone hole has called for new studies into air pollution in the world’s megacities, arguing that differing local conditions mean the world cannot rely on cookie-cutter solutions created in highly developed cities like Los Angeles and London.

Mario Molina, who in the 1970s identified chlorofluorocarbons, widely used as refrigerants, as a threat to atmospheric ozone, used examples of efforts to curb pollution in Mexico City and Beijing to Read more about Nobelist Mario Molina Public Lecture on Air Quality in Beijing and Mexico City

Project Economist Mun HO and Executive Director Chris NIELSEN have an op-ed in Fortune (and in Chinese at Fortune China) on the underappreciated reasons China's red alert air pollution episodes are proving so difficult to control. Factors range from atmospheric chemistry and meteorology to economics and politics. Research referenced Read more about Op-Ed in Fortune by Ho and Nielsen on China's Red Alert Pollution Struggles

Project Chair Prof. Michael MCELROY and several other Harvard faculty weighed in on the implications that a Trump administration poses for climate change in a recent Harvard Gazette article. 

Prof. McElroy noted that even if the U.S. cedes leadership in climate impact and clean energy technology, “China most likely will continue to reduce its emissions regardless…because Chinese action is driven in part by rampant air pollution that the nation’s leadership has committed to address. The solutions there overlap Read more about McElroy on Impact of Trump Administration on Climate Change

Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, has long helped explain the complexities of climate to students, scholars, and government leaders. His most recent book, “Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future,” published in August by Oxford University Press, is a continuation of that work. He discussed the book in a recent interview with the Gazette. Read more about McElroy on New Book "Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future"

Prof. Dale JORGENSON and Project Executive Director Chris NIELSEN are quoted in the China Daily USA about China’s plans to implement national emissions trading, primarily targeting heavy industries, and the potential role of taxes to meet China’s carbon pricing goals in other economic sectors.  Read more about China Daily Quotes Jorgenson and Nielsen on Carbon Pricing

Prof. Dale JORGENSON was interviewed by Caixin, China's independent news magazine, and he and Project Executive Director Chris NIELSEN were interviewed by the Harvard Gazette, about the role of taxes to meet China's carbon pricing goals given limitations of its national carbon trading scheme. The interviews followed a China Project symposium on the subject held in Beijing on May 30-31, sponsored in part by the Harvard Global Read more about Jorgenson and Nielsen on Carbon Taxes in China

A China Project study led by Prof. LU Xi (now at Tsinghua U.) and Project Chair Prof. Michael McELROY, comparing the challenges of wind power development in China and the U.S., is the cover article of Nature Energy. The paper decomposes factors contributing to wind power underperformance, including curtailment, differences in turbine quality, and delayed grid connection.  Read more about Lu et al. Wind Power Study on the Cover of Nature Energy

An interdisciplinary household survey in Chengdu, led by China Project Executive Director Chris NIELSEN, Prof. James HAMMITT (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and Profs. SHEN Mingming and YAN Jie (School of Government, Peking University), was completed in July and data files are now being prepared. Read more about Household Survey of Travel Behavior and Environmental Health Risk in Chengdu

Sponsored by the China Project and the Harvard Global Institute, Gore expressed optimism about progress in low-carbon energy developments and the roles played by the U.S. and China. Gore spoke on April 7 to a capacity crowd in Harvard's Sanders Theater, in the inaugural public lecture of the China 2030/2050 initiative of the Harvard China Project funded by the HGI. Read more about Former VP Al Gore Public Lecture on Climate, the U.S., and China

Project Executive Director Chris NIELSEN is quoted in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives regarding satellite-based evidence that annual average PM2.5 concentrations have declined throughout most of China since 2007, contrary to widespread popular perceptions. 

Nielsen comments that the new findings from the study, led by colleagues MA Zongwei and LIU Yang of Emory University, are consistent with effects of various factors on air quality, and match the timing of actual Chinese pollution controls modeled in the Read more about Nielsen in EHP on Encouraging PM2.5 Trends in China

China Project economist Mun HO contrasts economic conditions in China's rust belt to that of other regions and the resulting effects on local environmental implementation. For an audio excerpt of the interview on the BBC's "The Inquiry," click here. Ho describes the challenges of unexpected economic slowdown within China and the prolonged global recession. Some local authorities are resistant to environmental controls, fearing layoffs, factory shutdowns, and social Read more about Ho on BBC Describing Economic Feasibility of Air Pollution Control

Harvard President Drew FAUST announced the selection of the China Project to receive the first anchor grant of the newly established Harvard Global Institute. This major award, at $1.25 M annually for 3 years with an option for renewal, will support collaborative research across disciplines and between Harvard and Chinese institutions on climate-related challenges. Led by Profs. Michael B. McELROY and Dale W. JORGENSON and Read more about China Project Chosen by President Faust for $3.75 M Award from the Harvard Global Institute

Prof. Mike McElroy, Project Chair, is interviewed in the Harvard Gazette about China’s latest climate commitment, how the latest U.S.-China announcement might affect the UN climate talks in Paris, and whether it might make U.S. officials more open to a national plan to curb carbon emissions. McElroy specifically addresses the Chinese plans to enact national carbon trading and to commit $3.1B in climate-related aid to developing countries. He also discusses his upcoming book and the future research Read more about McElroy in the Harvard Gazette on the New U.S.-China Joint Statement on Climate

Project Executive Director Chris NIELSEN is quoted in the New York Times questioning the permanence of any short-term peak of coal use in China, and emphasizing the dependence of China's carbon trajectory on the course of its slowing economy and policy responses.

In VICE News Nielsen notes hopeful trends but also risks of difficulties in China's air Read more about New York Times and VICE News Quote Nielsen on China's CO2 and Air Pollution Control

The meeting of Presidents XI Jinping and Drew FAUST and the speech at Tsinghua University both emphasized the challenges of combatting global climate change and the role of U.S.-Chinese partnerships, citing the Harvard China Project as a model academic collaboration.

The meeting of the presidents also stressed the need to educate a new generation of leaders and included President Faust's invitation Read more about Harvard President Faust Meets Chinese President Xi; Highlights China Project in Speech at Tsinghua

The China Project has been awarded a grant from Harvard President Drew Faust's Climate Change Solutions Fund. The awarded study integrates research led by faculty in four Harvard schools, collaborating with counterparts at three schools of Tsinghua University and Nanjing University in China.

The study, assessing the costs and benefits of national energy and emission control policies in China, includes  Read more about China Project Receives Grant from Harvard President's Climate Fund

An article in Harvard Magazine describes research by Dale JORGENSON, University Professor of Economics, and colleagues on the potential economic and environmental benefits of taxing carbon in both the U.S. and China, including work in the China Project reported in Clearer Skies Over China.  Read more about Jorgenson on Carbon Taxes in the U.S. and China

Changing regional climate might be increasing atmospheric stagnation in northern China in winter, contributing to recent severe haze episodes. This is an area of active investigation in the atmospheric science community, both within China and beyond. It was one topic explored at a Harvard China Project symposium, "China 2035: Energy, Climate, and Development," held June 18-19 at the Harvard Center Shanghai with leading Chinese scientists, economists, and policy analysts. Read more about New York Times Cites China Project Symposium and Investigation

The China Project and the Harvard University Center for the Environment launched a public lecture series titled "China 2035: Energy, Climate, and Development." The spring 2014 series included public lectures by Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael SPENCE (March 11), former World Bank President Robert ZOELLICK (April 9), and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin RUDD (April 30). Read more about "China 2035" Lecture Series Features Michael Spence, Robert Zoellick, and Kevin Rudd

The China Daily described China Project research on carbon pricing and air pollution; The Economist cited results on the effectiveness of China's SO2 controls from our book, Clearer Skies Over China, also a subject of a New York Times op-ed by Project researchers Chris NIELSEN and Mun HO.  Read more about The Economist, China Daily Cite China Project Research, also Subject of New York Times Op-Ed