Introduction In December 2022, the European Union (EU) approved a green tax on carbon-intensive commodities called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). It aims at reducing carbon leakage, a phenomenon in which manufacturers move carbon-intensive production to countries with laxer climate policies, resulting in decreased carbon emissions in one country but increased emissions in another. […]
This article originally appeared on May 15, 2023, in the SAIS Europe Journal of Global Affairs. “Even the finest warrior is defeated when he goes against natural law. By his own hand he is doomed and all creatures are likely to despise him.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 31 Introduction Public international lawyers imagine […]
Of all the myths and fabrications that exist in political discourse, few are more stubbornly persistent than the scarcity of resources and the policies supposedly needed to control them. Today, that discourse has converged around one definitive commodity: oil. The omnipresence of oil in the modern economy is eclipsed only by the persistent belief in […]
Climate change will likely make it harder for people to find potable water. Over the next 50 years, some parts of the planet may become virtually uninhabitable, which could in turn cause large waves of human migration.[1] Nearly a third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed countries, indicating the risk of significant competition for […]
A struggle between natural science and politics has characterized the history of climate diplomacy from 1991 to the present, as the physical condition of the earth’s atmosphere worsens while the international community continues to try to design policy responses. … Progress in combating climate change needs more intense, blunt, and candid conversations on a sustained basis between atmospheric physicists and diplomatic negotiators to move forward at a time when global economic and population growth is increasing greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbating climate change.
Despite the increasing centralization of China under Xi Jinping, SAIS student Yujin Zhang uses the example of China’s Coal-to-Gas program to show that principal-agent problems and competing interests between Beijing and local governments still negatively affect environmental policy implementation. Effective environmental policies require long-term institutional reforms, not short term campaign-style enforcement.
In this article, author Joniel Cha investigates current trends in Russian natural gas production and exports, focusing on its role in the European energy markets. He analyzes how Russia uses natural gas production for its geopolitical strategy, the policies of different European countries, the effects of external shocks, and other strengths and weaknesses of the Russian gas sector to assess its future as supplier to Europe.
Dr. Gerald E. Galloway, from the University of Maryland, gave a speech at SAIS about why the effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria were so damaging to the United States. He then linked the effects of the disasters to the necessity of proper development in order to avert future disasters. He concluded by recommending that Congress re-brand climate change as a national security concern in order to improve climate change’s position in the national discourse.
In this article, Mohsin Amin and Elnaz Hassanpour Adeh from Oregon State University tackle the issue of water scarcity in Afghanistan and its implications for the stability of the country. After discussing the recent myriad problems facing the water infrastructure system in Kabul, they propose several engineering and policy solutions such as the construction of the Shah-Arus Dam and the creation of the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) that will ameliorate the situation.