Dear Colleagues:

The Kyoto Protocol—the international treaty crafted by states to address climate change—has expired. The Obama administration shows little ability to either pass or implement legislation. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 emissions continue to grow. The effects of climate change are evident: hurricanes, ocean acidification, glacial melting.

Yet many countries are developing their own climate change policies. Carbon markets, which aim to put a price on emissions, are popping up all over the world. Cities are making changes at the local level—preparing for a climate-changed world. Renewable energy is on the way up and coal is on the way down.

Are we doomed? Prof. Green’s book on climate change, Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance, is hot off the press. The book examines the role of NGOs and firms as de facto regulators—creating their own rules to address climate change—even in the absence of government She joins us to survey the landscape on what’s good news and what’s not, and where we are headed.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Jessica Green studies the rise of private actors as regulators. Her research asks when and why private firms and NGOs serve as de jure and de facto regulators in world politics, and how that affects the existing landscape of international institutions. Substantively, she focuses on transnational environmental problems, and climate change in particular. Her dissertation received the American Political Science Association’s Virginia Walsh prize for best dissertation in science, technology and environmental policy. Her research has been published in Global Environmental Politics, Governance, and Business and Politics. Her research interests include transnational regulation, international environmental law, global governance and regime complexity.

Before beginning Ph.D. studies, Professor Green earned her MPA in International Environmental Policy at Columbia University. She then worked with the United Nations University, in New York and Tokyo, where she co-edited two books on sustainable development and environmental governance. She has also worked at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the World Resources Institute.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

January 31: The Conspiracy Against Obamacare: How Academic Bloggers Influenced the Legal Battle Over the Individual Mandate. With Jonathan H. Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director, Center for Business Law and Regulation.

February 7: America’s Future in Space. With Michael L. Heil, Ph.D., President and CEO, Ohio Aerospace Institute.

February 14: The Wizard Behind the Curtain: ALEC and State Legislatures in 2014. With Amy Hanauer, Executive Director, Policy Matters Ohio.

February 21: The Profession of Accounting: Where It Came From, Where It Has Been, and Where It’s Going. With Gary Previts, Distinguished University Professor and E. Mandel de Windt Professor of Leadership and Enterprise Development.

February 28: TBA

March 7: Shared Success: Law Enforcement, Faith-Based Organizations, and the Fugitive Safe Surrender Program. With Daniel Flannery Ph.D., Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Professor and Director, Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education.

March 14: Spring Break

March 21: What the Jewish Experience Tells Us About Religion in America Today. With Peter J. Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies and Chair, Department of Religious Studies.

March 28: Muslims in the United States. With Justine Howe, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies.

April 4: The “Problem” of Teen Mothers. With Mary Erdmans, Associate Professor of Sociology.

April 11: Is the Federal Government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Anti-Asian? With Timothy Webster, Assistant Professor of Law and Director, East Asian Legal Studies. ***Alternate Site: Mather House Room 100.***

April 18: Is Cleveland Dying? With John A. Begala, Executive Director, Center for Community Solutions.

April 25: Pope Francis: So Far. With Paul V. Murphy, Professor of History and Director, Institute of Catholic Studies, John Carroll University