MIT confronts climate challenge with Joint Program
The question is no longer whether global warming is upon us … but how we can rise to its challenge.
MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change is a world leader in this effort. Our many activities cohere around one strategy: science and policy have to work together.
Climate change is complex, so understanding it requires cutting-edge scientific research. Applying that research to moderate the most dangerous effects of climate change requires unprecedented action and cooperation across national boundaries.
Advancing both frontiers – research on natural science and on economic policy – is our unique mission. Joint Program researchers explore the interplay between global environmental systems and human activities, and the potential impact of policies intended to stabilize this relationship.
Our latest studies are helping the U.S. Congress weigh the pros and cons of bills that propose to set different limits on greenhouse gases. The Joint Program’s sophisticated number crunching and analyses show legislators to what extent their emission targets will slow global warming and how associated rules may affect the economy. Our analyses provide detailed scenarios describing the impacts on different segments of society resulting from different costs of controlling emissions of greenhouse gases.
Other Joint Program research demonstrates that just as there are costs to cutting down on greenhouse gases, there are significant economic gains – especially where human health is concerned. For example, our researchers predict positive health impacts if China were to increase regulations of industrial pollutants. Compelling arguments have been presented that decisions about regulating greenhouse gases and airborne pollutants should include considerations of health costs and benefits.
In addition, Joint Program scientists are now working on challenges such as the following:
At the heart of much of this work lies MIT’s Integrated Global System Model, a set of mathematical tools for investigating connections between the Earth’s ecosystems and the world’s economies. By constantly refining and re-running this model, we can estimate the likelihood of different changes and demonstrate the potential costs and benefits of specific policies – essential inputs to international dialogue toward a global response to climate change.
Technical and popular publications bring the results of the Joint Program’s insights to the public. We communicate directly with national and international policy-making bodies and with other researchers. We also host the semi-annual MIT Global Change Forum, which brings together experts and decision-makers from industry, government, academia, research institutes, and NGOs, to discuss the wide variety of issues related to global change.
Through our research, publications, conferences, and testimony, the Joint Program serves fellow scientists, as well as government and corporate leaders, policy makers, and a worldwide citizenry.
