Kelly Levin

Senior Associate, Pillar Lead TRAC Policy

Bio

Kelly Levin is a senior associate with WRI’s major emerging economies objective. She leads WRI’s Measurement and Performance Tracking Project, which builds capacity in developing countries to create and enhance systems that track emissions reductions associated with low-carbon development goals. She closely follows the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and analyzes related emissions reduction targets and actions. Kelly has conducted an annual review of climate change science for WRI since 2005. She was also the Research Director and lead author of the 2010-2011 World Resources Report, which was dedicated to climate change adaptation, and specifically to how governments can improve decision making in a changing climate.

Kelly pursued her doctoral work at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where her research focused on adaptation policies to contend with climate impacts to biodiversity. During her PhD studies, she was also a writer for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services, covering biodiversity and climate change meetings, including the UN climate change negotiations. Kelly has also worked as a climate policy/technical analyst at NESCAUM (Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management), where she devoted her time to developing a regional greenhouse gas registry in the Northeast and assisting states in the development of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Kelly holds a PhD and Master of Environmental Management from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale College. She has been awarded the Google Climate Science Communication Fellowship and the Academic Council on the United Nations System Dissertation Award, and is a Switzer Fellow, Teresa Heinz Scholar, and Udall Scholar. Kelly’s publications can be found in Climate Policy, Global Environmental Politics, the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, International Forestry Review, Policy Sciences, among other journals.

Blog Posts

INSIDER: What’s Changing As Countries Turn INDCs into NDCs? 5 Early Insights
by Mengpin Ge and Kelly Levin - April 18, 2018
As countries formalize their climate action plans, some are shifting to more stringent targets, increasing transparency, and reflecting recent developments in knowledge and technology. Some countries, however, have lowered their ambition or made tweaks that make their commitment less clear.
INSIDER: Long-term Strategies: Climate Action Today with Tomorrow in Mind
by Kelly Levin, Taryn Fransen, Katherine Ross and Cynthia Elliott - April 12, 2018
Long-term strategies aren't required by the Paris Agreement, but every country would benefit from creating one. Here, perspectives on how to craft a long-term strategy, from three dozen experts.
INSIDER: Long-term Strategies: Climate Action Today with Tomorrow in Mind
by Kelly Levin, Taryn Fransen, Katherine Ross and Cynthia Elliott - April 10, 2018
Under the Paris Agreement, Parties have agreed to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Mid-century, long-term low-GHG emission development strategies (" long-term strategies") underpin...
Taking Greenhouse Gases from the Sky: 7 Things to Know About Carbon Removal
by Kelly Levin, James Mulligan and Gretchen Ellison - March 19, 2018
Most climate change solutions focus on mitigation—ways to slash emissions as quickly as possible, such as by adopting renewable energy. But research shows these aren't enough. To prevent the worst impacts of climate change, the world will need to reach net-negative emissions, a point at which we're actually removing more carbon from the air than we're putting in.
Billion-Dollar Disasters to Disappearing Ice: 2017 Was a Year of Record-Breaking Climate Events
by Kelly Levin - January 05, 2018
Parts of the United States are experiencing blizzard and frigid temperatures, possibly spurred by climatic changes. It's reminiscent of the types of extreme conditions we witnessed over and over last year.
INSIDER: The Climate Effect of the Trump Administration
by Taryn Fransen and Kelly Levin - December 06, 2017
How could the Trump administration's rollbacks of climate action policies increase greenhouse gas emissions? And how much might action by states, cities and others counteract such an increase?
Global Carbon Pollution Reaches Highest Levels Yet, New Report Shows
by Kelly Levin and Ranping Song - November 15, 2017
A new report by the Global Carbon Project and the University of East Anglia found 2017 had the highest levels of carbon pollution on record. Global carbon dioxide emissions from human activities and specifically from fossil fuels will reach record highs by the end of the year.
Understanding the “Emissions Gap” in 5 Charts
by Kelly Levin and Taryn Fransen - November 06, 2017
The annual Emissions Gap Report looks at the difference between the emissions reductions countries have promised and those needed to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Bottom line? The gap is considerable.
U.S. Climate Assessment: Now Is the Warmest Period of Modern Times
by Andrew Light and Kelly Levin - November 03, 2017
A new U.S. government report confirms the well-established science behind climate change: it's real, it's human-caused, it's happening faster than predicted and it poses a tremendous threat to America and the rest of the world.
Turning Point: Which Countries’ GHG Emissions Have Peaked? Which Will in the Future?
by Kelly Levin and David Rich - November 02, 2017
One ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement is for countries to peak emissions -- reach the point when global heat-trapping emissions switch from increasing to decreasing -- as soon as possible. A new WRI paper shows that 57 countries, representing 60 percent of all global emissions, are likely to peak emissions by 2030.

External Publications

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Kelly Levin

INSIDER: What’s Changing As Countries Turn INDCs into NDCs? 5 Early Insights

INSIDER: Long-term Strategies: Climate Action Today with Tomorrow in Mind

INSIDER: Long-term Strategies: Climate Action Today with Tomorrow in Mind

Taking Greenhouse Gases from the Sky: 7 Things to Know About Carbon Removal

Billion-Dollar Disasters to Disappearing Ice: 2017 Was a Year of Record-Breaking Climate Events

INSIDER: The Climate Effect of the Trump Administration

Global Carbon Pollution Reaches Highest Levels Yet, New Report Shows

Understanding the “Emissions Gap” in 5 Charts

U.S. Climate Assessment: Now Is the Warmest Period of Modern Times

Turning Point: Which Countries’ GHG Emissions Have Peaked? Which Will in the Future?

Enhancing NDCs by 2020: Achieving the Goals of the Paris Agreement

Designing the Enhanced Transparency Framework Part 1: Reporting under the Paris Agreement

Turning Points: Trends in Countries’ Reaching Peak Greenhouse Gas Emissions over Time

MRV 101: Understanding Measurement, Reporting, and Verification of Climate Change Mitigation

Staying on Track from Paris

Advancing the Key Elements of the Paris Agreement

Driving Transformative Change: The Role of the Private Sector in Advancing Short-term and Long-term Signals in the Paris Climate Agreement

Designing and Preparing Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)

Mitigation Goal Standard

An Accounting and Reporting Standard for National and Subnational Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

Policy and Action Standard

An Accounting and Reporting Standard for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Effects of Policies and Actions

Ex-Ante Clarification, Transparency, and Understanding of Intended Nationally Determined Mitigation Contributions

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Advancing the Key Elements of the Paris Agreement

An Accounting and Reporting Standard for National and Subnational Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

An Accounting and Reporting Standard for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Effects of Policies and Actions

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