NYT piece on Russia's shadow fleet frustratingly treats the build up of the fleet as an inevitable response to the price cap. That's not at all the case. The EU could have prohibited oil tanker sales to Russia, but for (I've heard) the desires of the Greek shippers. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/w...

New bipartisan Senate bill targets Russia's shadow fleet used to evade oil price cap. on.ft.com/46whsmY

I'm delighted to announce the release of the Flagship Report of the Global Climate Policy Project at Harvard and MIT Working Group on Climate Coalitions on "Building a Climate Coalition: Aligning Carbon Pricing, Trade, and Development." ceepr.link/3VmgC7g A 🧵 on what we do/find:

Interesting. This would presumably make it harder for the Democrats to pursue @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social's strategy to use gov't funding to extract concessions on domestic issues. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Interesting that he didn’t mention purchases of Russian gas, which would be harder to stop buying, I’d guess.

COP30 President André do Lago and I took stock of recent developments as preparations for the COP intensify. We have important priorities, such as submitting good new NDCs, developing adaptation indicators and highlighting effective policy approaches like carbon pricing at COP30.

Nice coverage of the climate coalition work in today's FT! "Brazil now wants to use the COP30 presidency to push for a different international carbon pricing framework — one based on multilateral agreement, rather than with the EU as the de facto sole standard-setter." on.ft.com/4p0UnBv

Lessons from 3 years of Russia sanctions: (i) financial sanctions don't work on current account surplus countries; (ii) you need to hit exports, which the G7 cap does; (iii) enforcement of the G7 cap was terrible, which is mainly about poor EU governance... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

🌍💡 Join the WCEREA Webinar on The Political Economy of Carbon Pricing 📅 Sept 9, 2025 ⏰ 9:00–10:30 am Pacific Time | Online Speakers: ‪‪@bardharstad.bsky.social, @profjeroenbergh.bsky.social, @cwolfram.bsky.social Moderator: @marcelocaffera.bsky.social 🔗 a1d0g2.emailsp.com/f/rnl.aspx/?...

Interesting perspective on sanctions, emphasizing the importance of enforcement. One point is the need for more resources for enforcement agencies. Investigative journalism is cool, but the authorities should be doing a lot of the work, in my view. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/b...

So important to have this kind of investigative journalism turning up what appear to be sanctions violations. on.ft.com/3UE7WZK

Really enjoyed this wide-ranging discussion by @natashasarin.bsky.social on @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social. What especially caught my eye was the mention of the tariff revenues (~$3T over 10 years) and what might replace them in a dem admin, including a carbon fee. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI6R...

Disturbing to read the honorifics applied to Putin in these documents. "Luncheon in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin."

Time for Graham & co to remember that they have 80+ votes in the Senate for tough sanctions.

Nice write up of our climate coalitions work in E&E News. "The idea of a climate coalition was outlined by experts ... in June as a way to make climate action more durable by aligning climate goals with countries’ economic interests." subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Donald Trump hits India with extra 25% tariff for Russia oil purchases

Thoughtful overview of the options on the table vis-a-vis Russia by Robin Brooks and @econharris.bsky.social. One fact that stuck out to me: crude oil accounts for ~50% of China's total imports from Russia & over 80% of India's. So crucial to hit that artery. www.russiamatters.org/analysis/sec...

President Trump regards climate change as a hoax. This is no reason to give up for those who still worry about the future of the planet. In this column, @wederdim.bsky.social, @jzettelmeyer.bsky.social and I explain how and put forward concrete proposals. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Progress! "A White House official clarified to CNN that when the president referred to “secondary tariffs,” he meant 100% tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy Russian oil." www.cnn.com/2025/07/14/p...

Graham says, "“I expect the Senate will move the bipartisan Russian sanctions bill that will allow tariffs and sanctions to be placed on countries who prop up Putin’s war machine and do not help Ukraine.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/u...

My op-ed in The Hill with @kclausing.bsky.social, @milanelkerbout.bsky.social & @tagliapietra.bsky.social: The EU CBAM is good for US steel and aluminum producers because they’re clean, so the US shouldn’t be bargaining over an exemption. thehill.com/opinion/ener...

One less thing for the Trump Administration to worry about, in their talks with the EU. The EU’s new climate and trade policy will be a good deal for US steel and aluminum thehill.com/opinion/ener... Our piece today, w/ @cwolfram.bsky.social, @tagliapietra.bsky.social @milanelkerbout.bsky.social

I'm delighted to announce the release of the Interim Report of the Global Climate Policy Project Working Group on Climate Coalitions on "Building a Climate Coalition: Aligning Carbon Pricing, Trade, and Development." salatainstitute.harvard.edu/gcpp-climate...

I see this as an example of 2 phenomenon: 1. the US on the same side as a petrostate in climate matters, and 2. the difficulty of making forward progress through the UN climate processes. www.eenews.net/articles/sau...

I agree with all of Kyle’s critiques and would add 2 more: 1. The piece cites Australia and Canada as countries where voters rejected carbon prices, but that’s not true. In AUS it’s called a “safeguard mechanism” and was put in place in 2023. CAN kept the price for industries the focus of the piece

Said Graham: "Things are changing now with Iran … that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about Russia or Ukraine, not at all." english.nv.ua/nation/u-s-s...

17 of the 20 G20 jurisdictions have some form of federal carbon price (or planned). The 3 that don't are Russia, Saudi Arabia and US. The below doesn't say much about climate, but is consistent with the idea that climate politics are esp challenging in the US. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Check out this commentary by @kclausing.bsky.social @allanhsiao.bsky.social @gibmetcalf.bsky.social Marilyn Pereboom, and @cwolfram.bsky.social that analyzes the Foreign Pollution Fee Act's potential impacts on several economic and environmental outcomes: ceepr.link/FPFA

At least some good things are happening in the policy world. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/c...

EU and UK to link carbon markets, and cite desire to smooth trade in CBAM goods as a motivation. Hopefully, this is the first of many examples of carbon market linkages. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I love the idea of secondary sanctions. These can be used to enforce several different policies: (1) a cap (as proposed by @edwardfishman.bsky.social in May 2022), (2) a "universal tariff" as I proposed in the NYT with Glenn Hubbard, or (3) an outright ban, as @ericvannostrand.bsky.social suggests.

Here's an interesting idea: an African decarbonization fund to support African countries as they adjust to the new climate and trade reality. Help with emissions monitoring and investments in decarbonization. Hats off to @fatenaggad.bsky.social african.business/2025/05/fina...

UK sanctioning "as many as 100 oil tankers that it says are part of a shadow fleet of vessels helping Russia to move its oil," which could expand the number of ships the country has designated by up to 75%. With increased enforcement and lower oil prices, It would be a great time to lower the cap.

Very sensible letter from several D Senators, including call to consider "U.S. secondary sanctions covering any company involved in importing Russian oil unless Russia pays a price per barrel for the benefit of Ukraine," based on my op-ed with Glenn Hubbard. www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/min...

Carbon border adjustment mechanism policies reduce emissions leakage, boost domestic competitiveness and encourage global carbon pricing — without disproportionately harming lower-income countries from @kclausing.bsky.social, Colmer, Hsiao and @cwolfram.bsky.social https://www.nber.org/papers/w33723

Yellen ’28, amirite?

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

🚨🚨 UK publishes CBAM draft legislation www.gov.uk/government/c...

Not news, but new coverage of an impt story. "The country’s decision ... is partly in response to a planned European Union tax on imported products that generate high emissions when made. Importers can avoid the tax if their home country has a carbon pricing policy." www.eenews.net/articles/bra...

This would be a bad if it came to pass - the EU agreeing to water down limits on methane emissions from US LNG imports as part of a trade deal. On the other hand, the EU regulations don't really bite until 2029. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Yes! "Twenty governments in states and nations are developing or considering carbon pricing policies, including Brazil and Turkey, according to a 2025 analysis by the International Carbon Action Partnership." #cbam subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Nice proposal! While some countries are tempted to profit from the sacrifices of others [ahem!] without making any themselves, Boyer and Gollier propose that the EU and Canada unite to set a single price for carbon and impose a tax at their borders on external countries that avoid this constraint.

Jaylen Brown keynoting MIT's Day of Climate and @knittelmit.bsky.social gets to do the closing remarks. Pretty cool! dayofclimate.mit.edu/events/day-o...

Affiliated faculty member @cwolfram.bsky.social talks with @mitsloan.bsky.social about the new paper she co-authored on CBAM: "the complicated topic with a kind of funny name that could have pretty profound implications for carbon emissions around the world."

April 10th, @TaxFoundation, UNC Tax Center, and @mitsloan are hosting a joint conference: "New Directions in Tax Policy: Budgetary and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex Tax Code." Affiliated faculty member @cwolfram.bsky.social will be a panelist

Great endorsement of the Russia Universal Tariff proposal by @simonhrjohnson.bsky.social. He notes that the bipartisan bill introduced by Blumenthal and Graham is a great start but could use one fix. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/l...

This came out a week ago but deserves re-upping. China is expanding its carbon price to cover 3 heavy emitting sectors: aluminum, cement and iron and steel. Those sectors emit 3 billion tons of emissions per year, so about two-thirds of TOTAL emission in the US. carbonherald.com/china-expand...

Of possible interest to #econsky and #climatesky.

I think the mechanism, which Glenn Hubbard and I argue should be a fee on every energy shipment rather than an outright ban, is more important than the punishment if the mechanism is violated. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/o...