Climate Change and Changes in Large Technical Systems

Climate Change and Changes in Large Technical Systems

Contact: Margaret Taylor

Faculty:
Cathryn Carson, Alex Farrell, Andrew Isaacs, Ann Keller, Todd La Porte, Bill Nazaroff, Michael O'Hare, Cymie Payne, Gene Rochlin, Christine Rosen, Margaret Taylor, Dorothy Thornton, Catherine Wolfram

Description:
This Round Table will focus broadly on how opinion-leaders think through and decide on climate-related changes to the energy and water systems. It will consider such topics as how implementation strategies for abatement and adaptation are devised, weighed against one another, and evaluated according to current costs and future benefits. It will consider how society imagines possible technologies, including their scale – ranging from geoengineering to the “soft paths” of appropriate technology – in order to determine the scope of “reasonable” or “legitimate” options. It will explore institutions, organizations, and human behavior, in addition to the more traditional engineering and economics-oriented approaches to environmental policy. And it will consider the strengths and weaknesses of the environmental policy models that might bring technological changes into operation, including voluntary versus obligatory programs, standards-based versus market-based policies, and policies that focus on classes of economic actors versus individual users of energy and water.