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.
5:00pm - Cocktails and Climate Chats
Participants check-in for GEM23 and log-in to conference app that will guide them through Climate Youth Conversations during Cocktails and Climate Chats.
6:30pm - Keynote Address and Dinner
Participants will explore the topic of local to global food security in the context of climate change.
May 11, 2023
8:00am - Breakfast
8:45am - Opening Reflections from Harvard Leadership
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
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.
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
President and CEO, Bezos Earth Fund
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.
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
Pakistan's first female architect and advocate of “barefoot social architecture”
Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Timor Leste
2:30pm - Working Towards Solution: Climate Incubation Rooms
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. The four climate incubation rooms below will be run simultaneously, and participants will be asked to decide which room they would like to attend before the conference.
Climate Incubation Room 1: Stewardship and Sustainability in the Amazon
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 Suruil
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
Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic; Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
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 for Disaster Relief
Director of the Indian Digital Health Network, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute; Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics; Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Associate Director of Programs, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico
Aiza Malik
Student Facilitator
Climate Incubation Room 4: Informed Decision-Making on Solar Geoengineering
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
Aining Liang
Student Facilitator
4:30pm - Closing Remarks
Executive Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University