President Lawrence S. Bacow adresses the Harvard Community about climate change
By Jonathan Shaw, Harvard Magazine
In a letter to the Harvard Community this afternoon addressing climate change, President Lawrence S. Bacow described what “Harvard has done and will do to ensure that our community is fully engaged in the critical work ahead.”
The appearance of such a letter was perhaps not surprising in the current global context of wildfires and hurricanes, heatwaves, and deluges and droughts—as well as continued student, faculty, and alumni interest in climate-change research and policy initiatives, and continued advocacy of divesting fossil-fuel assets from the endowment investment portfolio.
Urging action now as “citizens, as scholars, and as an institution to address this crisis on as many fronts as we have at our disposal,” Bacow outlined efforts under way and the beginnings of a path forward. He described a near-total divestment from fossil-fuel investments, as reported last winter, with only legacy holdings totaling less than 2 percent of Harvard Management Company’s (HMC) assets remaining: all through limited partnerships that are now in “runoff mode and will end as these partnerships are liquidated.”
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