Climate Policy: Opportunities and Obstacles
Provided by: Council on Foreign Relations|Published on: January 9, 2025|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12, AP
Type: Articles/Websites
Subjects: Economics, Civics, History
Authors: CFR Education
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this collection of articles, students will read about the economic and environmental implications of government policies to mitigate climate change.
- Students will learn about examples of international policy collaborations, different options for climate policy, and the considerations for equity and fairness in public policies.
- Students will learn about the Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement and market-based strategies such as subsidies, carbon tax, and cap-and-trade systems.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This resource addresses the importance of equity and fairness, which is important for students to consider.
- The resource does a great job of explaining the different policies and the implications for each of them.
Prerequisites
- Students should understand the causes and impacts of climate change.
- It may benefit students to have some economic and policy terms defined, such as subsidy, loan, grant, and others.
Differentiation & Implementation
- After reading the articles, students can create a timeline of worldwide collaboration events and environmental policies, adding future dates with climate policies they hope for.
- To demonstrate their understanding of mitigation policies, students can write about the positives and negatives of carbon tax, subsidies, cap-and-trade systems, and carbon border adjustment mechanisms for reducing emissions.
- These articles primarily covered mitigation costs and policies. After reading the articles, students can research adaptation costs and implementations. The resource CFR Education: Climate Change Adaptations can help students explore some examples of adaptations.
This series of articles discusses how governments and agencies at all levels can help combat climate change. The articles also discuss how combating climate change is a global issue and why that makes addressing it so complex, especially when prioritizing equitable and fair practices. The authors do a wonderful job of breaking down different challenges (equitable solutions, enforcement of policies, etc.) and solutions (taxes, carbon credits, incentives, etc.) to be easily understandable. The information presented is accurate, and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
