5 Climate Policy Headlines in 2023

This is the second in our 2023 Year in Review listicles highlighting the top Harris news, accomplishments, and perspectives from across our community in Education, Technology, and Climate Policy. Life in the Keller Center has seen many changes this year and each day brings new challenges and successes. Here are some of the events, publications, podcasts, and achievements that shaped our thinking in Climate Policy in 2023:

The Bartlett Fellowship Offers Students Energy Policy Research Opportunity

2023 was the 11th year of the Bartlett Fellowship Program, providing Harris students with the opportunity to learn more about working in energy policy. The paid fellowship invites selected students to work in the energy, environment, and climate economics sectors, pursuing policy research related to these subjects. These positions may be external summer internships, but many students work closely with faculty mentors at the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC).

This year, students researched trade-offs of blocking fossil fuel pipelines and logistics of climate financing to help communities adapt to climate change.

The Inequality Podcast Addressed Climate Change Economics

With this year’s debut of “The Inequality Podcast,” produced by the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, the hosts Steven Durlauf, Damon Jones, Ariel Kalil, and Geoff Wodtke examined the effect of inequality on a variety of policy areas. This podcast invites academics across disciplines to discuss the consequences of inequality.

In their episode “Matthew Kahn on Climate Change Economics,” Professor Durlauf invited Matthew Kahn, Provost Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, to debate how inequality affects climate policy. In the episode, Khan outlined the way changes in the environment alter people’s lives around the globe, and explored how the divide between the Global North and the Global South complicates climate migration.

Harris Students Compete with a Platform of Long-Term Sustainability

A Harris student team participated in the University of Oxford’s Map the System Competition, mapping the societal and environmental impacts of palm oil production. The team, which included Bonar Simeon Bintang, MPP'23, Ria Zapanta, MA'22. Nicole Martinez, MPP'23, Yurina Lee, MPP'23, and Kevin Samsi, MPP'23, finished among 45 finalists from around the globe with their presentation titled “Roadblocks to Sustainable Palm Oil Production in Indonesia.”

Their research found that the expansion of the palm oil industry has had negative societal and environmental effects all over the planet. The increase in production has ramped up deforestation which has resulted in climate change, excessive greenhouse gas emission, and the death of half the ecosystem’s birds and insects.

“It’s not the palm oil itself that is unsustainable,” said Bintang. “It’s the management behind it that makes it not sustainable.”

Together, the team mapped the effects of palm oil production and all of the sectors that touch it. With the help of Ronald Gibbs, Program Director of Policy Entrepreneurship and Competitions at Harris, the team brought their research to the global stage.

New Research Reports on Environmental Consequences of Hydrocarbon Infrastructure Policy

Ryan Kellogg, Harris Professor and Deputy Dean for Academic Programs, and Thomas Covert, from the University of Chicago Energy and Environment Lab, published their research about the effect of blocking fossil fuel pipelines this year. They found that blocking fossil fuel pipelines can lead to a shift in transportation modes towards those with greater pollutant outputs. Their research helps further the conversations begin held by climate activists regarding carbon emissions, local pollution, and fossil fuel production.

Harris Students Selected as Obama Scholars Advocating for Climate Justice

This September, eighteen graduate students from the University of Chicago were chosen for the newest cohort of the Obama Foundation Scholars program. Six of these students come from Harris with a variety of policy backgrounds. Two students have directed their goals towards addressing climate change and bringing about environmental justice.

From Bangladesh, Sharowar Khan, MPP'24, is working to empower those populations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change so no one is left behind. Terrius Harris works with Indigenous populations to promote environmental conservation using a community-driven approach.

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