IAP 2026 provides members of the MIT community with a unique opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities, including this lecture series on climate change produced by MIT’s Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3). Organized by CS3 Events Coordinator Dimonika Bray, the series was presented by Paul Nicknish (MIT Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)), Eric Roy (EAPS, CS3), Sandeep Chinta (CS3), Dominic White (CS3), Lucas Desport (CS3), Lexia Cicone (EAPS, CS3), Shreya Sharma (AeroAstro, CS3), and Chris Womack (AeroAstro, CS3). Please join CS3 during IAP 2026 to learn more about the science of climate change and policies aimed at stabilizing the global climate.
Day 1
Session 1: Climate Science 101
Speakers: Paul Nicknish, Eric Roy, Sandeep Chinta
This lecture introduced the components of our climate system, how they interact, and what causes the climate system to change over time. Presenters explained the concept of energy balance and its relation to a planet’s temperature, described the key components of Earth’s atmosphere and their roles in the climate system, and identified potential sources of internal variability in the climate system.
Session 2: Climate Policy 101
Speakers: Lucas Desport and Dominic White
The lecture introduced climate policy and concepts such as externalities, public goods, and emissions trading schemes, and economic theory for climate change. Presenters showed how environmental policy and economics can be integrated through resource demand reduction, climate adaptation and mitigation, carbon dioxide removal, and geoengineering.
Day 2
Session 1: Climate Science 102
Speakers: Lexia Cicone, Shreya Sharma, Chris Womack
This lecture explored the major impacts of climate change, the physical mechanisms that cause them, and the associated social and economic costs; the key components of climate models and the processes they represent; and the major sources of uncertainty in climate projections and how these uncertainties influence climate-related policy decisions.
Session 2: Climate Policy 102
Speakers: Lucas Desport and Dominic White
This lecture explored multiple examples of environmental policies around the world and their effectiveness, including carbon taxes, emissions trading systems, carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and clean energy subsidies.
Day 3
Session 1: Climate Science and Policy in Action
Speakers: Lucas Desport and Dominic White
This session featured an interactive demonstration of concepts from the above sessions, highlighting challenges and opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation. Attendees participated in a game illustrating how a simplified emissions trading system might function at the farm level in an economy consisting solely of a sheep/beef farm and a dairy farm.
Session 2: Panel Discussion
Speakers: Paul Nicknish, Kali Benavides, Jane Smyth, Jeremy Gregory
The lecture series concluded with this panel discussion among three experts actively working on climate policy and technology in Massachusetts: Kali Benavides, a senior analyst at National Grid; Jane Smyth, a climate scientist on the Responsible Investment Research Team at the Man Group; and Jeremy Gregory, the executive director at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium.
