Principal Investigator Lawrence Susskind
Many of the concerns associated with development differ between developing and developed countries, but there is a shared need for analytic tools to anticipate the consequences of development and growth management decisions. Research at MIT focuses on new approaches to making trade-offs between environmental and developmental objectives, as well as devising and testing methods to resolve disputes over such issues. A great many environmental problems can only be tackled on a global basis. Interest is in the dynamics of transboundary environmental negotiations, i.e. the climate change treaty, the biodiversity treaty, and hundreds of other regional and global agreements. A new book, Transboundary Environmental Negotiation (Jossey-Bass, 2002) highlights ways to involve civil society in these negotiations, blend science and politics in the treaty-making process, and ensure compliance in an international legal system that does not leave much room for enforcement.