Climate Change Solutions Fund 2022

Professor Aziz and his team are developing a new way to remove carbon dioxide from the air through the use of electrochemistry. So-called direct air carbon dioxide (DAC) capture represents a crucial solution if the world is to limit global warming to within to 2° Celsius. But conventional DAC technologies are both energy intensive and expensive. Using electrochemistry of water-soluble organic molecules allows for a scalable, low energy cost, and safe way to capture carbon. In the current electrochemical system developed in the PI’s lab, however, atmospheric oxygen (O2) renders the system inoperable. Funding will help the researchers develop a new electrochemical cell structure, with distinct compartments for electrochemistry and carbon capture, which would make the carbon capture process resistant to oxygen or any harmful component in the inlet gas.

The aim of this project is to develop a transformative, open-access climate and population health data-monitoring ecosystem in South Asia. More than 700 million people in South Asia have been affected by at least one climate-related disaster in the last decade. Yet, there is only a vague understanding of how climate change affects who moves, when, and why; how such distress migration in South Asia affects host communities; and the impact that large population fluxes have on access to food, shelter, jobs, and population health. Understanding these forces requires micro data on individual mobility, health, and related measures. Funding will allow the researchers to develop a prototype open-source data repository of traditional and novel data streams from public and private datasets, and invite interdisciplinary teams of stakeholders—including communities, scientists and policymakers—to explore and apply the datasets to advance adaptation measures.

The goal of this project is to help residents of Mather, one of Harvard University’s undergraduate student houses, to quantify and deliberate on the consequences of their consumption in the broader context of climate and environmental change. Using miniature sensors, students will measure the use of energy and water, food consumption and waste, along with indoor and outdoor variations in the ambient conditions, such as temperature, carbon dioxide  and humidity through the seasons and semesters. The anonymized data will be analyzed using statistical tools combined with mathematical models to ultimately stimulate debate about policy changes and inform choices and decisions associated with sustainable approaches to community living and learning.

Climate change poses an existential threat for hundreds of millions of people across developing countries. In the absence of severe mitigation measures by the rest of the world, these households must take steps themselves to address the dramatic shifts already occurring in their local environments. This project asks how households learn about and adapt to climate change. The research dives into the underlying mental models guiding farmers’ decisions in agricultural production to understand how the relatively slow, incremental environmental changes characteristic of climate change can often fail to prompt appropriate reactions. The focus is then on the critical issue of rising soil salinity in rural Bangladesh, which drastically reduces rice yields under status quo production. Combining new satellite-based measures of flooding with experimental variation in information and technology access, the research team estimates how households react to the changes in salinity brought on by flooding events and how these beliefs shape climate change adaptation.

Extreme heat is a critical climate challenge threatening human health, causing economic stress, and driving greenhouse gas emissions. Higher temperatures and longer and more intense heat waves will continue to impact cities. The organization and structure of the urban built environment is critical in responding to this threat as heat islands in cities intensify negative effects of extreme heat. This project will focus on developing an interactive bioclimatic comfort application and data collection platform for community participation and empowerment with an off-grid temporary installation exhibit. Beyond the typical data focused optimization that is common in a ‘smart cities’ approach, this project focuses on utilizing sensors to allow individuals to experience a new level of interactivity and access to real time bioclimatic information. The project acts on two levels: 1. A temporary physical installation on campus that will serve as a living laboratory and testing ground for sensors and climate-sensitive urban design elements. 2. Development of a bioclimatic data collection and sharing platform for community participation in climate-sensitive urban design projects.