Biography

Research Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

An expert on environmental law and policy, Michael Wara’s research focuses on climate policy and regulation, both domestically and internationally. Professor Wara’s current scholarship addresses the performance of the emerging global market for greenhouse gases and mechanisms for reducing emissions, especially in developing countries after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Professor Wara ’06 was formerly a geochemist and climate scientist and has published work on the history of the El Niño/La Niña system and its response to changing climates, especially those warmer than today. The results of his scientific research have been published in premier scientific journals, including Science and Nature.

Professor Wara joined Stanford Law in 2007 as a research fellow in environmental law and as a lecturer in law. Previously, he was an associate in Holland & Knight's Government Practice Group, where his practice focused on climate change, land use, and environmental law.

Professor Wara is a research fellow at the Program in Energy and Sustainable Development in Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

In the News

• China: Climate Change Or Hot Air?
  Business Week, December 09, 2009
• Cap And Tirade
  The Economist, December 03, 2009
• UN Suspends China Wind Farms Funding
  Financial Times, December 02, 2009
• Do Offsets Really Help Reduce Emissions?
  NPR - Morning Edition, October 14, 2009
• Carbon Offset Kiosks Help Air Travelers Ditch Guilt
  National Public Radio, September 29, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Environment and Energy Workshop
• Environmental Law and Policy
• Property

Programs

• Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP), Assistant Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

• Methods of Cost Containment in a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Program, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, September 15, 2009 (written testimony of Dr. Michael Wara, Assistant Professor, Stanford Law School / Faculty Fellow, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development / Center Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment).
• Michael Wara, Married in Haste We May Repent at Leisure, comment to Obama Urges Passage of Climate Bill, New York Times, June 23, 2009.
• Michael Wara and David G. Victor, A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development Working Paper, No. 74 (April 2008).
• Michael Wara, Is the Global Carbon Market Working? Nature, February 2007, pg. 595.