Climate Smart Philippines: Science for Service - Navigating Resiliency and Sustainability

Climate Smart Philippines is a platform that provides elucidations in reducing disaster risks and preventing potential damage and losses through scientific wide-ranging assessment, capacity development, project management and multilateral cooperation among actors. It is an avenue for all the stakeholders to understand, plan, develop and implement not only the best science and evidence-based strategic solutions but also the most humane and gender-responsive schemes.

SPEAKER

Glenn Banaguas
Scientist and Diplomat, Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of the Philippines 
Harvard Kennedy School

How Policy Can Scale Private Investment in Climate Finance

Estimates for the "climate finance gap" range from 2 to 7 trillion dollars a year. This is orders of magnitude more than governments or international institutions can spend. How can public policy scale private investment in climate finance? This talk will draw on new climate finance research from Harvard's Belfer Center, covering blended finance, multilateral development bank reform, carbon pricing and carbon markets.

SPEAKER

Ely Sandler
Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center 
Harvard Kennedy School

Casa do Barú: Preserving Native Vegetation by the Sustainable Harvest of Forest Products

The “Casa do Barú” project is a Sustainable Action Plan (SAP) developed for the Climate Smart Institute (CSI), a non-governmental organization based in São Paulo, Brazil. Its goal is to preserve the native vegetation of the Brazilian Cerrado biome by generating revenue from products harvested from the forest, particularly barú nuts. The Brazilian Cerrado, South America's largest savanna and a biodiversity hotspot, faces substantial threats, primarily from agricultural expansion. Despite its crucial role in Brazil's water cycle and biodiversity, half of Cerrado's native vegetation has been lost to cattle pasture and large-scale monoculture farms. 

The Climate Smart Institute (CSI), a São Paulo-based NGO, is addressing this issue through its Cerrado Circular project, which focuses on generating revenue from the sustainable use of natural resources in small landowner communities. One promising initiative within Cerrado Circular involves the extraction of barú, a native Cerrado fruit recognized for its superfood qualities. Barú trees present potential for integration into crop-livestock-forestry systems and for the recuperation of degraded areas due to the trees' nitrogen-fixing qualities, high production, and ability to thrive without the need for fertilizers. 

During the barú season, local families supplement their income by collecting and processing barú fruits. However, this activity in Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) is underdeveloped, and families face challenges in commercializing their barú production. The Climate Smart Institute envisions the creation of "Casa do Barú" in Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), serving as an agro-industry for processing barú and other native fruits, with products targeted at national and international markets. 

This Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) aims to explore the infrastructure needed for the processing plant, assess economic viability, formulate distribution and product strategies, and identify potential partnerships.

SPEAKER

Maria Beatriz Gentil Figueiredo
Blue Initiative Program Director, Climate Smart Institute 
Harvard School of Education

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Unique Solutions for Different Fleet Needs

Join me in exploring the diverse paths municipalities can take toward greener fleets. We'll examine everything from integrating Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Hydrogen technologies to the infrastructure and training required. I'll share insights from the Sustainability Action Plan I prepared for the City of Medicine Hat complete with research-backed recommendations and a practical roadmap for adopting eco-friendly vehicles, showcasing strategies to optimize costs and benefits. Learn how to navigate your green transition effectively.

SPEAKER

Raeda Addoum
Member, Board of Trustees, Oak Meadow Montessori School 
Harvard University

Health and Economic Impacts of Vehicle Type and Energy Choices for Cities: A Case Study of Japan’s Top Ten Cities

This research delves into the critical and adverse impacts of vehicle emissions and energy sources on the economies and public health of cities, utilizing Japan's top ten cities as a detailed case study.

SPEAKER

Dinesh C
Co-Founder & CEO, ADAPT 
Harvard Extension School

High-Temperature Microbial Electrolysis

We have a biomanufacturing platform that leverages hyperthermophilic, gene-editable archaea to produce chemicals for sale. Our first set of microbes turn organic waste into green hydrogen and biogenic carbon dioxide. Bigger vision for these first microbes is to use already-existing processes to combine the hydrogen and carbon into green hydrocarbons (primary source of car, truck, and plane fuels, and plastic). Our fermentation technology is 20x faster than existing microbial decomposition methods. We’ve scaled from 25mL to 2L proof-of-concept, with our next milestones being patent portfolio build-out and 100L demo. Our first downstream application for these gasses is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), followed by plastics, ethanol, and other synthetic fuels.

SPEAKERS

Niranjan Kulkarni (CTO), Henry Markarian (CEO) & Jake Sweed (COO)
Integrated Dynamics 
Harvard Business School

Sustainable Development at the Local Level: What Stakeholders Can Do

County commissions rule over local land use decisions, especially regarding new real estate developments and rezoning decisions. How can these processes be more transparent, and how can ordinary citizens stay informed of such decisions at the local level? In my session, I will describe my own experiences campaigning against a proposed rezoning of a local wetland and sending 200 stakeholder letters against it. I will also describe the importance of civic engagement regarding these decisions, compare sustainability in local land use ordinances in Florida, and the various methods citizens can promote environmental considerations.

SPEAKER

Lilly Xu
Harvard University

Financial Regulation to Mitigate Climate Risk

As the Securities & Exchange Commission faces battles on multiple fronts due to its groundbreaking and controversial final rule on climate disclosure— 2 persistent arguments against the rule have come to the fore. Opponents successfully argued before the 5th circuit for a stay by alleging that the SEC exceeded its authority by promulgating a costly and burdensome rule.   But is that true — has the SEC exceeded its authority to regulate registered companies, even after removing its highly controversial Scope 3 disclosure requirements?  Let's unpack these arguments and discover why the SEC has properly exercised its delegated authority and how a current SCOTUS case threatens to undermine federal agency's ability to address  climate related financial risk.

SPEAKER

Tracey Lewis
Public Citizen
Harvard Business School