Applications are now open. APPLY HERE by February 12 at 11:59 PM EST. 

Application is open to all current Harvard students. The workshop is capped at 40 participants. 

Dates: 

  • Friday, 1 March (1pm-5pm; optional refresher: 11am-12pm)  
  • Saturday, 2 March (9am-5pm)  
  • All sessions held at Harvard Kennedy School, unless otherwise specified. 

“Boiling Point” is a highly interactive workshop series designed to build leadership and negotiation skills to drive action on climate change, which will take place in Spring 2024. 

Teaching Team

Prof. Rand Wentworth, Monica Giannone, Anselm Dannecker 

We have invited seasoned international climate change negotiators to join us to share their experiences of: 

  • how to advance the Substance of climate change negotiations, 
  • how to shape an effective Process for progress, and 
  • how to build and maintain Relationships that drive change. 

Throughout the workshop, we will run short, interactive negotiation and leadership exercises. In addition, guest speakers give short inputs and tell personal stories from their experience, followed by in-depth discussions of the application of concepts from leadership and negotiation. 

The workshop culminates in a half-day Capstone Negotiation Simulation to negotiate a global climate agreement. 

There are no formal prerequisites to take the workshop, but experience and familiarity with international climate change are an asset. There will be an optional refresher session on Friday morning. 

Boiling Point is designed for highly motivated and committed students and selection requires an application process. The application process is now open, click here to apply.

For questions regarding Boiling Point or the application process, please contact the Collaboratory at collaboratory@hks.harvard.edu.   

Rand Wentworth is the Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He received the Manuel C. Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021 and served on the faculty of the Senior Executive Fellows from 2017-2019. Wentworth also serves as president emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance, a national federation with 1000 land trusts, 13,000 board members and6.3 million members. He served as president from 2002-2016 and is widely recognized for expanding the pace and quality of land conservation in America. 

Monica Giannone is the Director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also an Instructor and teaches two negotiation courses for graduate students. The Collaboratory's work seeks to innovate at the intersection of negotiation and public leadership by bringing together academics and scholars with front line negotiators to produce research, trainings and workshops, and increase the capacity of public leaders to better negotiate, overcome difficult situations, and collaborate across difference.  Monica is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Management Division at Babson College and teaches negotiation in the M.B.A. program. Monica’s current areas of work focus on international climate negotiations, overcoming partisan divide in U.S. legislatures, negotiation in cities and local government, value-based conflict, situations of low-power, and gender and negotiation. 

Anselm Dannecker is a Senior Fellow at the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and a Part Time Lecturer at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies. Dannecker focuses on complex multistakeholder negotiations in international finance, climate change, and European politics. As a Coach for the Kennedy School Negotiation Project, Dannecker has worked with individuals in targeted one-on-one settings on understanding default behavioral patterns in negotiation settings and improving individual negotiation performance. Dannecker has trained and consulted clients from various sectors, including European legislators and international climate NGOs. 

Q: How does this seminar compare to IGA-455?  
A: There is some cross over. The workshop is just two days and is not for credit and will focus on COP, i.e., international climate negotiations. IGA-455 covers a broader range of environmental issues and focuses on three core leadership skills: Persuasion, Advocacy and Negotiation. The workshop deep dives into the specifics of international climate negotiations. It is possible to do both.