Science, Technology, and Public Policy

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. 

Join us for a conversation about science, diplomacy, and geopolitics with Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer and Professor and Director of The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire Larry Mayer. Professor Mayer led the science team onboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which just completed a cruise from Alaska to Greenland through the Northwest Passage. Please register to attend this event here. 

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. 

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

The world's biggest underground iron ore mine is about to undermine the Swedish city of Kiruna. The answer? Move the city.

Join the Arctic Initiative for a conversation with students from Luleå University and experts from across the globe for a case discussion about sustainable development, consensus building, and how one Arctic city is responding to rapid change.

Apply to be part of this unique case discussion opportunity by Monday, September 28, 2020, so you can be matched with your international team.

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.

Moderator: Joel Clement, Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative

Speakers: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head, Arctic and Environmental Unit, Saami Council

Deenaalee Hodgdon, Student, Brown University; Indigenous Activist

Raina Thiele, Founder and President; Thiele Strategies

Join the Arctic Initiative for an engaging and illuminating conversation with three indigenous leaders: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council; Deenaalee Hodgdon, Brown University student and indigenous activist, who is a Deg Hit'an Athabaskan and Supiaq woman from the villages of Anvik and South Naknek, Alaska; and Raina Thiele, Founder and President of Thiele Strategies who was born and raised in Alaska and is Dena'ina Athabascan and Yup'ikas.

Please RSVP to Brittany_Janis@hks.harvard.edu.

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.

Speaker: Ane Lone Bagger, Minister of Education, Culture, Church, and Foreign Affairs, Greenland

Moderator: Halla Hrund Logadóttir, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Arctic Initiative

Greenland, the world's biggest island, has long held a strategic geographic and political position in global affairs. It has made headlines recently, after President Donald Trump stated he wanted to buy the island, because of its strategic location in the Arctic and its wealth of natural resources. Greenland's foreign minister, Ane Lone Bagger, had told Reuters: "We are open for business, but we’re not for sale."

 Join the Arctic Initiative for an insightful lunch with Greenland's Minister of Education, Culture, Church and Foreign Affairs, Ane Lone Bagger, about how Greenland is responding to the shifting dynamics in the Arctic as climate change is transforming the island and the waters surrounding it, opening up the region to the outside world.

Lunch provided. 

This event is currently at capacity. To be added to the wait-list please email brittany_janis@hks.harvard.edu by 4 PM, Monday, September 9th, 2019. RSVPs recorded on a first-requested, first-reserved basis.

Speakers: Fran Ulmer, Chair, U.S. Arctic Research Commission; Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative; Elizabeth Arnold, Journalist

Moderator: Halla Hrund Logadóttir, Co-founder and Co-Director, Arctic Initiative 

As climate change begins to impact communities globally, it's crucial for women to take a stand as leaders for ethical and equitable climate adaptation. Nowhere is this leadership challenge felt more strongly than in the Arctic. 

This program is co-hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School's Arctic Initiative and the Women and Public Policy Program.

Lunch provided.  Please RSVP to karin_vander_schaaf@hks.harvard.edu by 4 PM, Friday, February 8, 2019. RSVPs recorded on a first-requested, first-reserved basis.