April 15, 2022

MIT Climate Grand Challenge is an initiative to deliver high-impact climate solutions. In the first round, 27 teams as finalists from a field of nearly 100 initial proposals. “Preparing for a New World of Weather and Climate Extremes,” a project led by Professor Paul O’Gorman, Associate Professor Miho Mazereeuw, and Professor Kerry Emanuel, was among the five of the most promising proposals that are selected as multi-year flagship projects.

Climate change intensifies extreme weather and climate events, such as the unprecedented heatwave in western North America in 2021 and rainfall from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. These devastating events are becoming more intense globally. Still, we do not adequately know the changing risks for specific regions and communities or how changing extremes will affect the broader use of wind, solar, and hydroelectric energy that is needed to limit future greenhouse gas emissions. This research will address these critical knowledge gaps by improving the science and prediction of extremes and their effects on our energy systems. Based on the improved projections of extremes, This research will build a scalable toolkit, initially focused on cities in the United States and Africa, for communities and stakeholders to prepare and adapt. Our team brings together experts in climate science, engineering, design, and machine learning at MIT with external partners to provide the most significant benefit to communities, municipalities, and industry.