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Over 160 nations worldwide, 319 cities across the country, and 132 colleges in the Northeast alone have committed to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, Yale joined these ranks by setting a target to reduce emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Harvard once showed promise as an emerging global leader on environmental issues, but the notable absence of a commitment from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has allowed our archrival to move one step ahead...
This Sunday evening, the Undergraduate Council (UC) will decide whether to add a referendum to the UC presidential ballot in December that would call on FAS to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 11 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The vote will mobilize the student body, prompt debate in the dining halls about climate change and—most importantly—add to the growing pressure on FAS administrators to take action...
...opponents to the referendum are concerned that students will not be informed enough to make the decision, while others fear that a vague statement of student sentiment will open the floodgates to referenda on other issues in the future. Students do not understand the cost implications of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they argue, and besides, they say, Harvard could spend money more effectively on energy research...
Given the budget crisis facing FAS, there is naturally a concern about how these greenhouse gas reductions will be funded, although the economic cost may be lower than first appears. The Environmental Action Committee (EAC) has published a position paper outlining a number of simple ways to achieve these reductions: decreasing energy demand, increasing efficiency in laboratories, and offsetting emissions with renewable energy purchases. Many of these initiatives will pay for themselves in the long run. Although the exact upfront costs are unclear at present, the purpose of the referendum is to send a message to the administration that students...
...their expense or large in their monetary savings (or both); a vow to reduce FAS-wide emissions by 11 percent will certainly bring expenses but will not guarantee savings. By this spring the EAC expects to have data from a more detailed inventory of Harvard’s greenhouse gas emissions—and, in turn, a better idea of the costs of reducing emissions. Without that information, however, it will be impossible to assemble a more concrete proposal for emissions cuts, and so until then it is impossible to judge the merits of any plan to reduce emissions...