The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School is pleased to announce the appointment of Brittany Janis as Associate Director of the Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program (STPP). An experienced administrator, team-builder, and communicator, as Associate Director she will oversee the operations of both programs and build strategic partnerships across Harvard and with external partners. 

On May 24, 2023, the members of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) unanimously voted in favor of accepting Harvard Kennedy School’s Arctic Initiative into the network. UArctic is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes, and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the North. 

In January, Harvard Kennedy School students Jonny Yau (MPP 2024) and Stirling Haig (MPP 2024) traveled to Tromsø, Norway, for a week-long intensive workshop hosted by the Arctic Academy for Social and Environmental Leadership (ARCADE). As part of the workshop, Yau and Haig joined Arctic Initiative team members at the 2023 Arctic Frontiers Conference, an annual meeting of scientists, policymakers, and business leaders focused on sustainable development in the Arctic.

In late March, 19 students from Harvard and the greater Boston area boarded a bus to Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, for the final session of the second annual Arctic Data Stories Workshop. 

The Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted Iceland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, for an engaging Earth Day dialogue on sustainability.  

As the Arctic continues to transform due to a changing climate, Minister Thórdarson discussed the critical role the Arctic Council will continue to play in promoting collaboration on the issues of sustainable development and environmental protection across the Arctic and beyond. The collaboration is also essential to global security. 

In 2019, the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute co-hosted a workshop with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council at Harvard Kennedy School entitled, Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean. This early-convening played a key role in fostering a policy discussion around tackling the problem of plastics in the Arctic Ocean. 

Now in 2021 the first global conference focused on plastic pollution in the Arctic Ocean, the International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and the Sub-Arctic Region,  will be hosted virtually in early March. Findings from the 2019 event will be featured as a keynote in the Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and as part of the final panel on March 9, which is focused on the topic of “Ways Forward”. 

The Arctic region is changing rapidly, and the speed of ongoing change makes adaptation extremely challenging. Governments, indigenous peoples, local communities, researchers, and businesses must work together to build resilience to the social-ecological changes that are underway. With that goal in mind, the Arctic Initiative this fall helped launch the Arctic Resilience Forum—a highly successful 10-week international online forum. 

Arctic Data Stories will give students with non-technical backgrounds the chance to explore geospatial data and policy, guided by experts from the Arctic Initiative, the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and Esri. The workshop covers topics in data visualization, policy, and ArcGIS software and culminates with student presentations on Arctic-specific policy challenges. Sessions will be held virtually on Fridays from 12–2 p.m. ET on February 5–26 & March 5, 2021. Participants must commit to attending all sessions when applying.

Over the course of two days, the Greenland Policy Challenge teamed up students from the University Greenland with students from Harvard over Zoom to co-develop recommendations for Greenland's policy strategies in the fields of climate change, education and cultural preservation, foreign affairs and economics and trade. Student groups were paired with expert local Greenlandic mentors who offered guidance along the way.

The Arctic Initiative is pairing policy and science scholars with local experts to find practical climate solutions.