Climate Crisis
Climate change is a global threat that requires an urgent response. The Harvard community is taking a multi-faceted approach to addressing and reversing the effects of this crisis.
Deaths from fossil fuel emissions higher than previously thought
Fossil fuel air pollution responsible for more than 8 million people worldwide in 2018.
Read the Engineering School articleOne threat, many actions
Climate champions
As climate risks increase, so do the number of people working around the world to improve our planetary health and our lives. We’ve captured a few stories about students, scholars, and leaders from across our global community who are confronting climate change — in ways both big and small.
Denis Hayes
Denis Hayes attended Harvard, but left in 1970 to start a grassroots environmental movement called Earth Day. Read his 2020 interview with the Harvard Gazette.
Saamon Legoski
Recent Harvard graduate Saamon Legoski plans to become an environmental justice attorney — one who understands enough science to be an expert litigator in court.
Christina Chang
Recent Harvard graduate Christina Chang co-invented a method that could enable the production of cheaper, longer-lasting solar panels that can be mass produced at a rate of a few feet per minute.
Renee Salas
Renee Salas, an emergency physician, HMS assistant professor of emergency medicine, and climate change and health expert, organized the symposium, “The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice,” to help health care workers understand and anticipate the intersection of climate change and health care.
Charles Waldheim
Florida native Charles Waldheim directs the Design School’s Office for Urbanization. He is researching the relations between landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism, and finding ways to combat climate change.
Our climate priorities
Harvard has outlined an ambitious goal to be fossil-fuel neutral by 2026 and fossil-fuel free by 2050. We’re focused on achieving this in three ways:
Climate research and innovation
Harvard students, faculty, researchers, and staff are working every day to uncover breakthrough solutions to our climate crisis.
Global and local sustainability
Across our local campus and global community, we’re working to become more energy efficient and sustainable.
Carbon-neutral investing
We are reducing our endowment portfolio’s carbon footprint, using our investment strategy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Want to learn more about climate change?
Through HarvardX, you can explore and register for open access online learning courses related to climate change. Many are free of charge to attend or audit.
Through air quality, nutrition, infectious diseases, and human migration, this course explores how increases in greenhouse gases impact public health.
This course provides participants with a quantitative introduction to the energy system and its environmental impacts.
This course explores weather systems and the observational skills needed to make a forecast without using instruments or computer models.
Latest climate news from the Harvard Gazette
We’ve curated a selection of Harvard Gazette stories focused on climate change.