In Beijing, Faust Talks Climate Change with Chinese President

University President Drew G. Faust met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday in Beijing to discuss efforts to combat climate change and invited the Chinese leader to visit Harvard’s campus on a future trip to the United States.

University President Drew G. Faust with President of China Xi Jinping By Courtesy of Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Faust, who has also appeared at a “Your Harvard” alumni event since arriving in China, said she hopes Harvard faculty can work with Chinese scholars to research climate change.

“Addressing climate change, educating the next generation of leaders and supporting faculty research across disciplines into a host of problems facing China and the world are issues of deep mutual interest,” Faust said in a statement to The Crimson. “They are also areas in which Harvard's faculty and students can fruitfully collaborate with scholars and policy makers in China over the coming years."

Harvard has collaborated with Chinese academia before. For over 20 years, Harvard researchers have worked with faculty at many Chinese universities through the Harvard China Project, a group based at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences focused on researching the environment and energy in China.

During the meeting, Faust also extended an invitation for Xi to visit Harvard.

“We look forward to welcoming President Xi to Harvard,” Faust said in the statement to The Crimson. “It is through continuous dialogue and exchanges of information and views that can we can make progress on the issues that are important to our University, to the people of China, and to the world.”

Faust has historically stressed the importance of research as a means to address climate change, especially when discussing whether the University should divest its $35.9 billion endowment from fossil fuels, a move Faust has routinely deemed neither “warranted or wise.”

Next on Faust’s China itinerary is a speech Tuesday morning at Tsinghua University centered on the topic of climate change and how universities can address it.

—Staff writer Theodore R. Delwiche can be reached at theodore.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @trdelwic.