Climate at Mittal
South Asia is home to nearly two billion people and commonly regarded as “ground zero” for climate change. The region is experiencing severe flooding, heat waves and droughts and the region’s poor are some of the most vulnerable. The Mittal Institute has embarked on a major climate change initiative focused on South Asia with the launch in 2023 of a new Climate Change Platform for South Asia that will include research projects, training programs as well as exchange fellowships for senior and junior academics, scientists and policy makers.
PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES
CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN SOUTH ASIA
This interdisciplinary project seeks to advance climate adaptation research and implementation at the household, community, state and federal levels in South Asia, particularly in the context of climate-driven migration.
CLIMATEVERSE: DRIVING DATA-DRIVEN RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN SOUTH ASIA
The aim of this project is to develop a transformative, open-access climate and population health data-monitoring ecosystem in South Asia.
COMMUNITY HATS (Heat Adaptation and Treatment Strategies in South Asia)
This project seeks to collect empirical and localized data on lived experiences of extreme temperatures and humidity.
MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE OF ADAPTATION ACTION IN SOUTH ASIA
This project seeks to identify and map the wide range of adaptation interventions underway in South Asia in response to extreme heat and precipitation.
NO ORDINARY HEATWAVE (लू से बचें, इन चीज़ों का रखे ख़्याल)
The Mittal Institute collaborated with the India Meteorological Department and the National Foundation for India to produce a public service video on heat stroke awareness and protection. This is part of the Mittal Institute’s Climate Platform’s efforts to promote scientifically sound and contextually relevant community-centered dialogues about climate change and adaptation.
Climate change is one of the most important existential crises of our time. The Mittal Institute is uniquely positioned to contribute to scholarship that impacts the issue by acting as an intermediary between the vast resources we have here at Harvard and the many organizations and scholars already doing excellent work in the region. We are looking forward to being a platform and connector, bringing together different disciplines and voices who may not normally exchange and collaborate.
RESOURCES
EVENTS
FELLOWS
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
FACULTY GRANT PROJECTS
NEWS AND MEDIA
HARVARD FACULTY TEAM
Caroline Buckee
Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Satchit Balsari
Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Tarun Khanna
Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Mittal Institute Faculty Director
Jennifer Leaning
Senior Research Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and Professor of Practice, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Peter John Huybers
Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Environmental Science, and Engineering
Rahul Mehrotra
John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Graduate School of Design
Daniel P. Schrag
Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
HIGHLIGHTS
Policy Brief: Climate Change in South Asia: Requisites for a Sustainable Future
This Policy Brief draws attention to significant knowledge gaps, information asymmetry and barriers to decision-making and capital experienced by the communities most at-risk, calling for large investments in community-centered innovation, financing and adaptation. It summarizes discussions from two workshops: the Workshop on Climate Change, held at the inauguration of the Harvard Mittal Institute Climate Platform, in New Delhi, India, in March 2023, and A Workshop on Climate Adaptation in South Asia and West Africa, held at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, in November 2023.