MIT’s Climate Change Engagement Program To Join the Institute’s Climate HQ

By: Grace Sawin, Co-op

MIT’s award-winning Climate Change Engagement Program has been integrated into MIT’s newly-formed Climate HQ.

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program is an Institute-wide effort to empower the public with trusted, nonpartisan, scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions. Home to a number of award-winning educational tools, including the MIT Climate Portal and MIT Climate Primer, the program has developed some of the world’s most-visited online resources on climate change.

After four years of growth at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), the program will now operate out of MIT Climate HQ, an office created under the Climate Project at MIT. Launched by President Sally Kornbluth in early 2024, the project represents an ambitious new model to marshal the Institute’s talent and resources to research, develop, deploy, and scale up serious solutions to help change the planet’s climate trajectory.

“The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program has, from its earliest days, worked with faculty and researchers across all of MIT,” says founding director Laur Hesse Fisher. “The move to Climate HQ formalizes the program’s critical role in MIT’s strategy to engage audiences beyond the campus, and its commitment to empowering the public with trusted, easy-to-understand information about climate change.”

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program began in 2020 with the launch of the MIT Climate Portal, a key initiative of MIT’s Climate Action Plan to share “timely, science-based information about the causes and consequences of climate change – and what can be done to address it.” With the support of the ESI, the effort grew to include an award-winning digital primer on climate change, a podcast with tens of thousands of subscribers, a web portal packed with free resources, and a journalism fellowship that emphasizes local messengers. 

As we move forward, we want to highlight the progress the program has made in each of these areas during its nearly four years of operation.

1. Climate Primer: a self-directed climate 101

The MIT ESI and MIT Open Learning collaborated with Dr. Kerry Emanuel, MIT Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science and author of the celebrated book What We Know about Climate Change, to develop this online exploration of what scientists know about climate change and how they know it. The multimedia site features eleven short digital chapters and interactive features where readers can easily introduce themselves to climate science, risks, and solutions.

The primer is used by over 100 university and high school classrooms, and educational programs in the U.S. and Europe. In 2020, it won a Webby Award for best digital editorial feature.

2. TILclimate podcast: jargon-free climate explainers

The podcast TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) breaks down the science, technology, and policies behind climate change. In quick, 10-15 minute episodes, host Laur Hesse Fisher and writer Aaron Krol work with expert guests to explain critical climate change topics without jargon or politics. Over 30 episodes are also accompanied by an educator guide, designed to further student understanding of climate change, with a focus on solutions.

Over its six seasons, TILclimate has attracted over 20,000 active subscribers; has been recommended as a top climate podcast by The New York Times, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify; and won a Platinum AVA Digital Award.

Most important is its impact on listeners, who have shared how TILclimate has helped them grapple with climate change in their professional lives, speak knowledgeably about climate issues with friends and family, or even become part of their workplace training. As one listener said: “This is how I get my knowledge about climate science. It’s concise, easy to listen to, and I actually learn useful info every episode. Need to teach your mom or kid about climate change? Listen to this podcast.” 

3. Climate Portal: easy-to-understand climate information from MIT experts and scientists

The MIT Climate Portal is one of the world’s most visited websites for information about climate change. Designed to inform and empower the climate-curious, the Climate Portal offers a wealth of free, public resources that are nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and science-based.

The most popular section of the portal is the Ask MIT Climate series, where our MIT Climate Portal writing team answers readers’ climate questions with guidance from subject-matter experts at MIT. The sites’ explainers, written by scientists and experts at MIT and beyond, are quick, readable primers on important climate topics, from extreme weather to electric vehicles to renewable energy. The site also features MIT Action, Institute-wide news posts and events from over 20 MIT departments, labs, centers, and initiatives focused on climate research and action. To date, there are two bimonthly newsletters that readers can sign up for.

Since its launch in October 2020, two million readers have visited the portal, with over one million of them in 2023 alone. Approximately 50% of readers are international, reaching users from over 100 countries and solidifying its intended global audience. The MIT Climate Portal is now a top three Google search result for over 950 searches related to climate change.

4. Journalism Fellowship: supporting climate reporting in Americans’ backyards 

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program also runs the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship, launched in spring 2021. The fellowship supports freelance and staff journalists associated with U.S. local and regional newsrooms in creating major reporting projects that connect climate impacts and solutions to the concerns and perspectives of their audiences. Climate journalism is often limited to national news outlets, and although this coverage is essential, localizing climate reporting has proven to engage diverse audiences and drive community-based climate solutions. Our fellows have reported from local newsrooms in over a dozen states, including Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arizona and West Virginia. 

The fellowship’s third cohort is preparing for publication in fall 2024, with projects covering hydrogen production in Appalachia, U.S. carbon markets in Oregon, the energy transition in Utah’s coal country, and other topics related to the emerging low-carbon economy.

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program’s managing editor, Aaron Krol, will assume leadership of the program as director Laur Hesse Fisher leaves her role in September 2024. 

“It’s a very exciting time to be working on climate topics at MIT, as the Institute deepens its commitment to making a real-world impact on the course of climate change,” says Krol. “At MIT Climate HQ, our public engagement projects will now join the heart of that effort.”

To follow the publications from the MIT Climate Change Engagement Program and its journalism fellows, visit climate.mit.edu, subscribe to the bimonthly newsletter, and follow the program on LinkedIn.