Rethinking Global Climate Change Governance
Oct 2009
Economics: The Open Assessment, Open Access E-Journal
Scott Barrett
Lenfest-Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics
Personal Details
Focus areas: International cooperation, global public goods, climate change, ocean governance, infectious diseases
Scott Barrett is a leading scholar on transnational and global challenges, ranging from climate change to disease eradication. His research focuses on how institutions like customary law and treaties can be used to promote international cooperation.
He has advised a number of international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, and the International Task Force on Global Public Goods. He was previously a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a member of the Academic Panel to the Department of Environment in the UK.
Barrett previously taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., where he also directed the International Policy program. Before that, he was on the faculty of the London Business School. He has also held visiting positions at Yale, Princeton, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, and École Polytechnique.
Barrett is a research fellow with the Beijer Institute (Stockholm), CESifo (Munich), and the Kiel Institute of World Economics.
Education
- PhD in Economics, London School of Economics
Honors and Awards
- Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, September-December 2016
- Publication of Enduring Quality Award, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, ("for publications based on their seminal nature and enduring value"), June 2016
- Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, University of Bath (UK), October 2016
- Erik Kempe Award (European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists), 1996
- Resources for the Future Dissertation Prize, 1990
Research And Publications
Polio Eradication: Strengthening The Weakest Links
Jul 2009
Health Affairs
A Portfolio System of Climate Treaties
Oct 2008
Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
Oct 2008
Oxford Review of Economic Policy
Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods
Oct 2007
Oxford University Press
In The Media
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the School gathered multiple speakers and other online material to help celebrate 727 graduates representing 69 nations.
May 19 2020
A discussion of the implications of Covid-19 for our global society.
Apr 13 2020
“This outbreak presents an incredible learning opportunity because it just crosses so many issues.... This is a moment for SIPA to stand up,” says Barrett, a leading scholar on transnational and global challenges.
Apr 01 2020
Scott Barrett told Newsweek that the whole world needs to get in on reducing carbon emissions in order to stop climate change from becoming permanent. "To keep temperature well below 2 C, global emissions should start falling very soon, and fall rapidly."
Nov 05 2019
Newsweek
Why do countries that affirm the necessity of avoiding dangerous climate change act in many ways so as to hasten the outcome that they say must be avoided? SIPA's Scott Barrett recalls ecologist G. Hardin and “The Tragedy of the Commons."
Dec 13 2018
Science Magazine