Although this year's Rio+20 conference produced only vague goals and few concrete commitments, it provided a major opportunity to shift the global environmental focus to the national and local levels, says this Expert Roundup.

Forty years ago, the Club of Rome produced a best-selling report warning humanity that its escalating wants were on a collision course with the world's finite resources and that the only way to avoid a crash was to stop chasing economic growth. The predictions proved spectacularly wrong. But the environmental alarmism they engendered persists, making it harder for policymakers to respond rationally to real problems today.

Greenhouse gas trading is now a multibillion-dollar international business and is expected to continue to grow, despite uncertainty about a post-2012 international climate regime.

In his piece for Foreign Policy, Charles Kenny explains how the world is building a low-carbon global economy -- with or without the United States.

Michael Spence describes how Asia's emerging economies will have to incorporate sustainability into their plans for growth.

Michael A. Levi says sensible regulation could benefit the shale gas industry.

As background to the ongoing negotiations, this document provides a U.S.-centric chronology of the international policy deliberations to address climate change from 1979-2011.

This book authored by Lester Brown looks at the environmental threats to international stability and analyses the international cooperation needed to stem environmental deterioration.

A possible transfer of political power in the congressional midterm elections could doom short-term chances for a comprehensive climate bill. But experts say climate issues could still be addressed through bills focused on clean energy.

This in-depth study of twelve producer, processing and consumer countries demonstrates that actions taken by governments, civil society and the private sector over the last ten years in response to illegal logging and related trade have been extensive and had a considerable impact.

Michael A. Levi and Trevor Houser take a closer look at the numbers presented in the American Power Act.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has analyzed the research on the effects that policies to reduce greenhouse gases would have on employment.

Elizabeth C. Economy testifies before the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives on China's evolving climate change diplomacy and relations with the developing world, as well as implications for the U.S. policy and investment.

Listen to experts breakdown the development of an international framework for geoengineering and the implications of these technologies for U.S. foreign policy.

Listen to experts breakdown the development of an international framework for geoengineering and the implications of these technologies for U.S. foreign policy.

Frank E. Loy and Michael Levi defend the so-called "Copenhagen Accord,"as "a serious step forward, if a severely limited one."

"Who, when it comes crunch time, might walk away if they don't see the right deal?" asks Michael Levi referring to the climate change negotiations going on in Copenhagen.

With an eye on the numbers associated with emissions and climate change, Michael Levi writes that representatives at the Copenhagen conference ought to accept the United States' proposal for emissions cuts.

The UN conference on climate change that begins December 7 in Copenhagen is supposed to produce new targets for emissions reductions, but experts say major countries are at odds on the ultimate goal of a new framework. This backgrounder looks at some of their positions.

Michael Levi proposes the creation of a new multilateral mechanism for climate policy review, so as to better evaluate the success understand the viability of the climate policies of both developing and developed nations.