Carbon Pricing Is Spreading Across International Trade, with Catherine Wolfram

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi speaks to Catherine Wolfram about the recently launched Open Coalition on Compliance Markets and how it can coordinate carbon pricing systems across national borders, inspire more and more countries to join, and ultimately reduce carbon emissions. Wolfram is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, the co–faculty lead of the Global Climate Policy Project at Harvard University and MIT, and a member of the Resources for the Future Board of Directors. She and coauthors recently published work on the Open Coalition, suggesting a viable framework for countries in the coalition to harmonize their domestic carbon pricing programs as they trade across borders, while raising government revenues and reducing carbon emissions. The authors’ spin on economist Bill Nordhaus’s original idea of climate coalitions (or “climate clubs”) involves low-income nations joining the coalition at a lower cost; Wolfram argues that coalition countries experience less friction with international trade and gain the advantage of revenues raised, with the downsides of implementing a carbon price much less than what’s commonly thought. References and recommendations: “Putting Climate Coalitions into Practice: A Common Framework for Balancing Competitiveness and Equity” by the Global Climate Policy Project (GCPP) Working Group on Climate Coalitions; https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/putting-climate-coalitions-into-practice-gcpp-report/ “Building a Scalable Climate Coalition for Heavy Industry” by Catherine Wolfram, Joseph Aldy, Candido Bracher, Gregory Casey, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Kimberly Clausing, Carolyn Fischer, Christian Gollier, Allan Hsiao, Frank Jotzo, Marcelo Medeiros, Kyle Meng, Athiphat Muthitacharoen, Axel Ockenfels, Mari Pangestu, Marilyn Pereboom, Arathi Rao, Ivan Rudik, Daouda Sembene, Naomi Shimberg, E. Somanathan, Dustin Tingley, and Jennifer Winter; https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef7190 “How Carbon Border Adjustments Might Drive Global Climate Policy Momentum” by Kimberly Clausing, Milan Elkerbout, Katarina Nehrkorn, and Catherine Wolfram; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/how-carbon-border-adjustments-might-drive-global-climate-policy-momentum/ “Putting Climate Coalitions into Practice: A Common Framework for Balancing Competitiveness and Equity” from the Global Climate Policy Project; https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/putting-climate-coalitions-into-practice-gcpp-report/ “Emissions Trading Worldwide: ICAP Status Report 2026” by the Internation Carbon Action Partnership; https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/publications/emissions-trading-worldwide-icap-status-report-2026 “Hooked” podcast series from Campside Media; https://www.campsidemedia.com/stories/hooked Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/