Climate alignment is no easy task

March 13, 2024, Audio: "As temperatures rise, countries need to collaborate to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate global warming. Robert Stavins has attended the last 16 Conferences of the Parties (COPs), a U.N. initiative that convenes nations to figure out how to do this. So far, he is encouraged by those efforts.  “Emissions have been flat to declining in the wealthy countries of the world,” said Stavins, the A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development. However, emissions are still increasing in areas where large economic development has taken place, which tend to be poorer, developing countries. Their economic progress may be at odds with mitigation efforts.  “The [points raised] are critical for Africa,” said Emmanuel Akyeampong, the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies. “Our resources are often mineral resources, either oil and gas or precious minerals, and these lie at the core of our developmental strategies or agendas. So how do we use that to develop in ways that do not take away from the global progress that is being made?”  Caroline Buckee, a professor of epidemiology at the Chan School of Public Health, said that for the people already experiencing new levels of extreme temperatures, adaptation research is critical."