Climate Solutions Lab
Climate Solutions Lab
The Climate Solutions Lab's mission is to create, learn and distribute solution-oriented climate knowledge at Brown and across the world.
Climate Solutions Lab
The Climate Solutions Lab's mission is to create, learn and distribute solution-oriented climate knowledge at Brown and across the world.
Iran War Energy Cost Tracker
How much is the Iran war costing American consumers? The Iran War Energy Cost Tracker, developed by the Climate Solutions Lab, tracks the extra cost paid for gasoline and diesel since the conflict began on February 28, 2026.
Recent Publications
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News from the Climate Solutions Lab
Driving decarbonization? Corporate responses to the Paris climate agreement in the global automotive sector
Did firms accelerate decarbonization as a result of the 2015 Paris Agreement, particularly in industries where low-carbon options were technologically feasible? This paper challenges optimistic accounts of the Paris Agreement's influence and call for continued efforts to understand the limits of international agreements in driving firm behavior to address climate change.
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News from the Climate Solutions Lab
Anarchy, Nature, and Innovation
The variety of topics studied in the field of International Relations contrasts sharply with the relatively anemic theoretical framework that IR scholars use to study those topics. This essay proposes three ordering principles as a framework for teaching and guide for intellectual inquiry: Anarchy, Nature, and Innovation.
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News from the Climate Solutions Lab
Global Climate Politics after the Return of President Trump
The second Trump administration has disrupted global climate politics, turning the United States away from the clean energy and environmental policies of the Biden administration. Consequently, analytical attention is turning to a family of concepts referred to as “Climate Realism” (CR), which favors long-run investments in technology and adaptation over near-term climate mitigation efforts.
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In the News
View More A new report shows the “unacknowledged tax” of the Iran energy price shock.
“This data shows that energy price shocks function as an economy-wide, unacknowledged tax on households, with costs comparable to large federal programs and policies,” said the Climate Solutions Lab director.
The New York Times
Trump’s War Is Punishing the Poor, Starting at the Gas Pump (by Jeff Colgan)
Energy costs have been walloping the working class since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. And things could get a lot worse this summer, with prices rising ever higher the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to shipping.
News from The Climate Solutions Lab
View More A team of researchers analyzed more than 25,000 civil lawsuits, gleaning insights on regional disparities in environmental law and opportunities to broaden impact.
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Researchers at the Watson Institute's Climate Solutions Lab were awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to support planning for a new Center on Clean Energy and Society (CES).
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The start of Brown's new fiscal year on July 1, 2023, brought a number of leadership changes to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and its centers.
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Syllabus Bank
The Lab has developed a syllabus bank to make it easy for potential instructors of climate change courses to learn from what other instructors have done.
The syllabus bank holds syllabi from post-secondary courses about climate change, taught in the social sciences
Climate Opportunity Map
This Map Will Make You Optimistic About Fighting Climate Change
Bloomberg article features searchable map created by the Climate Solutions Lab, which shows estimated job and public health opportunities that come with transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Climate Solutions Lab on Trending Globally
Trending Globally is a regular podcast featuring insight on today's critical global challenges. With Brown University scholars, practitioners, and students, the discussions bridge research, politics, and policy.