Harvard’s Climate Report Missing for Second Straight Year

For the second year in a row, Harvard Management Company’s annual climate report is nowhere to be found.

The report, released every year from 2021 through 2024, tracks HMC’s progress toward Harvard’s goal of achieving net-zero endowment emissions by 2050. HMC historically released the reports in February or March, but published no report in 2025 — and no 2026 report has appeared six months after its typical release date.

Harvard in 2020 became the first U.S. higher education endowment to pledge net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its portfolio by 2050, matching the timeline set by the Paris Climate Agreement. HMC, which manages the University’s $56.9 billion endowment, made the commitment just months after the Trump administration first announced it planned to withdraw from the agreement.

The annual reports have included updates on HMC’s climate-related investments, HMC’s carbon-neutral operations, and efforts to measure the endowment’s emissions.

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan reiterated the endowment’s commitment to a net-zero portfolio in a statement to The Crimson.

“HMC remains committed to achieving a net zero portfolio by 2050 and we look forward to providing an update on our progress in due course,” McKiernan wrote.

McKiernan gave the same statement when the 2025 report was six months overdue last September. That report was never released.

Helen H. Mancini ’29, a co-lead for Sunrise Harvard, said the University should place greater emphasis on its climate goals as the Trump administration rolls back climate protections.

“Climate should be a bigger conversation than it ever has been. Things are only getting worse, but it’s really in the hands of institutions and governments to lead that conversation, and that’s just really not being seen enough from Harvard right now,” Mancini said.

Sunrise Harvard, formerly known as Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, spent nearly a decade pushing Harvard to divest from fossil fuels.

The Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, instructed HMC in 2020 to set the endowment on a path toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and asked the investment office to develop a strategy for reaching the target by the end of that year.

HMC separately pledged in 2021 to make its own operations carbon neutral beginning in fiscal year 2022.

Later that year, University President Lawrence S. Bacow announced that HMC would allow its remaining legacy investments in the fossil fuel industry to expire and did not intend to make future investments in funds focused on the sector. By then, HMC had reduced its overall exposure to fossil fuels by more than 80 percent from 2008 levels.

While divestment helped Harvard become “a leader in the energy transition,” Mancini said, the University should not stop there.

“Their failure to be transparent is not only careless to the students and faculty who fought so hard for this, but it is a capitulation in our view to this broader context of deprioritizing climate nationally in the face of the Trump administration policies,” she said.

Past climate reports have tracked HMC’s progress toward its 2050 target. The most recent report, published in March 2024 report and covering data through June 2023, said HMC’s operations were carbon neutral for the second consecutive year.

The report also said that less than 2 percent of the endowment remained exposed to private equity funds focused on fossil fuel exploration and development, a decrease from the previous year. HMC’s exposure to climate-transition investments had meanwhile grown to more than one percent of the endowment.

Mancini said Harvard’s climate advocacy should go beyond public-facing pledges.

“It’s not enough to have sustainability programs on your websites,” she said. “It’s about being a leader and continuing the conversation and making bold choices. That’s why we pushed for divestment, and that’s why we’re continuing to demand that Harvard stays transparent and accountable about fossil fuels.”

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at mblon.50. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Graham W. Lee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @grahamwonlee.