The Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change conducts research and analysis on issues of global environmental change, with a concentration on climate, and communicates the results to the research community, policymakers, and the public. The program's work focuses on the integration of natural and social science aspects of the climate issue to produce analyses relevant to ongoing national and international discussions. The effort involves an interactive group of faculty, staff, and student researchers.
Founded in 1991, the Joint Program combines the capabilities of two complimentary interdisciplinary research centers: the Center for Global Change Science (CGCS) and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR). Resources of the parent centers are strengthened by links to the Marine Biological Laboratory's Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, MA; the MIT Climate Modeling Initiative; and other MIT environmental programs. Cooperative efforts engage the program with leading research institutions and nonprofit organizations worldwide. Financial support is provided by an international group of sponsors from government organizations, foundations, and industry.
The program's cornerstone is the MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM) of economic and environmental change. The IGSM is a comprehensive research tool for analyzing potential anthropogenic global climate change and its social and environmental consequences. The IGSM includes consideration of climate science, technical change, and economic and social science in an interacting set of computer models designed for study of the sensitivities and uncertainties that are crucial to policy evaluation.
Program members communicate research results, and interpret the policy relevance of the analytical work, through many professional activities, including publications, workshops, corporate and public briefings, and media interviews. Special briefings from program members have been requested by the US Congress and federal and state agencies, by governments working through their ministries and international organizations, and by independent research panels. Information is also communicated directly to international and national policy-making bodies, and to other investigators, through the program's semiannual MIT Global Change Forum.
Professors Henry Jacoby, of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Ronald Prinn, of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, codirect the program. For further information, contact the program office, Room E40-428, MIT, 617-253-7492, fax 617-253-9845, globalchange@mit.edu.
http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/