MIT COP-21

Big Data, Big Stakes: a Stocktake of COP21

The MIT ESD.S30 class has been hard at work sifting through massive amounts of information from Twitter, live streams, news articles, and first-person accounts from our colleagues to gauge the progress of COP21 over the past two weeks. I think what many…

How might nuclear power influence climate negotiations?

For years, the nuclear industry has under-delivered on its promise of abundant clean energy. Today, nuclear power deployments remain roughly stagnant, limited by high costs and the fallout from several high-profile accidents. However…

Seeing as I spent most of my watch slot feeling intense secondhand embarrassment for a man who forgot to bring his nameplate, who absolutely could not figure out how to sync the…

COP21 Reflection: energy efficiency at COP21

In my initial observations of COP21 discussions on Twitter, blogs, and news feeds, energy efficiency seemed to get brushed under the rug. It can be hard to focus on energy efficiency, which many people think just means light bulbs, as a strategy to…

Unintended Benefits: Air Quality and COP-21

The COP-21 negotiations on climate change will begin shortly. Soon, thousands of people will descend on Paris to begin negotiating global strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation. Few of these strategies are simple and cheap, and most require…

The Loss and Damage Moment?

The rising temperatures and seas around us suggest that our efforts to prevent dangerous climate change are…

Shining a Light on the Outcomes of COP21

It would be an understatement to suggest that the world has high expectations for the outcome of this month’s COP21 meeting in Paris. Over the past year, much has been written about what sort of emissions reductions commitments we can expect, and how these…