11 Events

Seminar - Open to the Public

Arctic Climate Week @ HKS

Mon., Nov. 15, 2021 - Mon., Nov. 22, 2021

Join the Arctic Initiative team for Arctic Climate Week at the Harvard Kennedy School! The week will feature events dedicated to understanding the climate impacts in the Arctic and their global implications. Register for Arctic Climate week events here

Jökulsárlón, Iceland

UnSplash/Roxanne Desgagnés

Seminar - Open to the Public

"Together towards a Sustainable Arctic": An Earth Day Dialogue with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Arctic Council, H.E. Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson

Thu., Apr. 22, 2021 | 1:00pm - 2:30pm

Online

Join the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for an engaging Earth Day dialogue with Iceland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, about  Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council on what is next. 

Gabrielle Scrimshaw speaks at the Arctic Innovation Lab, 15-Nov-2017.

Photo Credit: Benn Craig

Seminar - Open to the Public

Arctic Innovation Lab: New Ideas For a Better Arctic

Fri., Oct. 9, 2020 | 10:30am - 12:30pm

Online

The Arctic Innovation Lab is a project designed to promote solution-oriented discussions on the changing Arctic region. 

Come hear new ideas for a better Arctic and vote for your favorite one!

Opening remarks by Kenneth A. Howery, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden and Co-Founder of Paypal and the Founders Fund

Seminar - Open to the Public

ARCTIC PERMAFROST THAW: SCIENCE & POLICY

Fri., Sep. 25, 2020 | 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Online

A Climate Week Event co-organized by the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Arctic Initiative

This session focuses on a warming-driven phenomenon—the rapid thawing of Arctic permafrost—that is contributing simultaneously to the most vexing of Arctic warming’s impacts both in the region and around the world. This session will target experts and non-experts who are interested in understanding the science and policy issues at the heart of this widely underestimated facet of the global climate-change challenge.

Register here.

2018 Arctic Innovator, Reine Rambert, pitches at the Arctic Innovation Lab

Belfer Center/Benn Craig

Seminar - Open to the Public

Four Ideas for a Changing Arctic — Pitches from the 2019 Harvard University Arctic Innovators

Fri., Oct. 4, 2019 | 12:00pm - 1:15pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Each year the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative sends a delegation of students to attend the world’s largest Arctic gathering, the Arctic Circle Assembly. This year, after a competitive application process, four students were selected to represent Harvard at the Arctic Innovation Lab. Come and hear their presentations before they leave for Iceland to pitch their ideas for a changing Arctic. 

Lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP to brittany_janis@hks.harvard.edu by October 2 to secure your seat.

Arctic Ocean off Tromso, Norway.

Wikimedia/Vinay Deep

Seminar - Open to the Public

Precaution in Action: The New Arctic Fisheries Agreement

Wed., Nov. 7, 2018 | 12:15pm - 1:30pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Speaker: Amb. David A. Balton, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

The Central Arctic Ocean has essentially been ice-covered year-round since the dawn of human history … until now. As a result of climate change, a growing portion of the Arctic Ocean is ice-free for an increasing part of the year, making it possible to contemplate the advent of high seas fisheries in the region. But on October 3, 2018, nine nations and the European Union signed an unusual international agreement that will effectively postpone the start of such fisheries and will instead launch a joint program of scientific research for the Arctic. David Balton, who chaired the negotiations that produced this agreement, will describe the geopolitical forces that made the agreement possible, outline the agreement's basic elements, and consider the place of the agreement in the growing architecture for governing the Arctic Ocean.

Lunch provided.

RSVP by 5 PM, Tuesday, November 6