All sessions will be held at Harvard Kennedy School. This page will be updated as speakers and panelists are confirmed. GEM23's Opening Reflections, Keynote Address, and panel discussions will be live-streamed.
GEM23: Growing in a Green World will seek to incubate solutions, recommend policy action, and develop tools for leaders on the frontlines who strive to catalyze growth and improve quality of life when climate disasters are ubiquitous.
May 10, 2023
All times are shown in Eastern Daylight Time.
5:30pm - Cocktails and Climate Chats
Kicking off GEM23 with a reception curated by the Harvard Climate Coalition featuring Harvard student-led research, action, advocacy, and art focused on climate change and global food security issues.
Read about the student climate art contest.
6:30pm - Storytelling through Food
Showcasing local to global efforts on food security with introductory remarks by Asim I. Khwaja, CID Faculty Director and Fatema Sumar, CID Executive Director followed by a climate-conscious menu designed in collaboration with Cambridge chefs Tracy Chang, Chef/Owner of PAGU Restaurant, and Irene Li, Chef/Owner of Mei Mei Dumplings, as part of their work with Project Restore Us.
May 11, 2023
8:00am - Breakfast
8:45am - Opening Reflections from Harvard Leadership
Faculty Director of the Center for International Development; Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School
Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University; Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Dean of Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School; Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School; Professor of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
9:30am - Keynote Address from Dr. Vjosa Osmani Sadriu, President of the Republic of Kosovo, moderated by Fatema Sumar, CID Executive Director
"Navigating in a World of Climate Urgency: The Republic of Kosovo and the Importance of Global Partnerships"
President of the Republic of Kosovo
10:15am - Coffee break
10:30am - Panel 1: Greening Emerging Economies
Discover economic pathways for developing countries to navigate climate challenges and opportunities in their pursuit of sustainable and inclusive growth. Panelists represent views from policy, tech, migration, industry, and energy. View the recording.
Senior reporter covering climate change
Director of the Growth Lab at CID; Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School
Global Climate Lead for IFC Infrastructure, International Finance Corporation
President and CEO, Bezos Earth Fund
United Nations Special Adviser on Africa
11:45am - Connections and Conversations Lunch
1:00pm - Panel 2: Building Resilient Societies
Explore the humanitarian, social, and environmental impacts developing countries are facing due to climate change and discuss evidence-based policy options to build more resilient societies. Panelists represent views from environmental, indigenous, humanitarian, and community perspectives. View the recording.
Independent journalist and founding director, Initiative on Communication and Sustainability, Columbia Climate School
Co-Director of the Data Science Initiative; Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Faculty Director of Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at CID; Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies and Chair of the International Development Area, Harvard Kennedy School
Oxfam America's Chief Innovation Officer for aGILE
Climate and Environmental Specialist at BRAC, Bangladesh
2:30pm - Working Towards Solution: Climate Incubation Rooms
The Climate Incubation Rooms during GEM23 will generate and explore early-stage collaborations between researchers and practitioners on climate change in developing economies.
Following the keynote address and panel sessions, GEM23 will divide participants into smaller groups that will participate in “Climate Incubation Rooms” focused on one of several pressing topics. These “research-meets-practice" working sessions will explore early-stage ideas, encouraging participants to consider how cutting-edge research can address pressing problems and reimagine the boundaries of knowledge and action on climate change. Participants will be encouraged to develop collaborations they would subsequently submit to the GEM23 Climate Incubation Fund for seed funding.
Climate Incubation Room 1: Stewardship and Sustainability in the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest plays a critical role in climate regulation. Often referred to as “the lungs of the Earth,” it produces between six and nine percent of the world’s total oxygen and long functioned as a carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide than it emitted. This Climate Incubation Room will examine how to prevent the Amazon of reaching a point of no return for the planet and for the communities that live there.
Andelot Professor of Demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and African and African American Studies;
Co-Director of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative
Txai Suruí
Indigenous leader and activist from the Brazilian Amazon
Co-founder of Imazon, Director of Amazon 2030 initiative; Director at Centro de Empreendedorismo da Amazonia and Affiliated Scholar at Princeton University
Senior Program Director, Andes Amazon Fund
Angelica Remache Lopez
Student Facilitator
Climate Incubation Room 2: Climate, Food Security, and Emerging Technologies
Climate change poses a significant threat on global food security. As the world population grows, the demand for food is increasing, and climate change is making it increasingly difficult to produce enough food to feed everyone. This Climate Incubation Room will examine how we can build a food secure planet in a warming climate, including looking the role of emerging technologies.
Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic; Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Executive Director, Volcani International Partnerships
Director, Data Management, Digital Products and Technology at Akademiya2063
Head of Food for Good at Google
Smriti Saini
Student Facilitator
Climate Incubation Room 3: Data in Crises: Developing Evidence-based Disaster Response
Climate scientists agree that the frequency and severity of many natural disasters will increase with a warming planet. To protect our most vulnerable communities from increasingly frequent climate-related extreme weather events, we need to know — before, during, and after a disaster — who, what, and where the most vulnerable are. This Climate Incubation Room will examine how we can use data in rethinking disaster preparedness and response.
Co-director, CrisisReady| Harvard + Direct Relief, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Co-director, CrisisReady| Harvard + Direct Relief, Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Innovation Lead, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blumont
Aiza Malik
Student Facilitator
Climate Incubation Room 4: Informed Decision-Making on Solar Geoengineering
Solar geoengineering refers to a set of emerging technologies, such as stratospheric aerosol scattering and marine cloud brightening, that could alter the Earth’s radiative balance by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight back into space to reduce the amount of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. The scientific community remains divided on the feasibility and potential risks of solar geoengineering. This Climate Incubation Room will examine the growing need for informed decision-making on solar geoengineering given its complex and contested nature.
Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
Founder & Executive Director, The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering
Founder and CEO at the Degrees Initiative
Full Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the School of Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires
Aining Liang
Student Facilitator
4:30pm - Closing Remarks
Faculty Director of the Center for International Development; Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School
Executive Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University