At the XLV (45th) MIT Global Change Forum on March 23-24, 2023, about 90 attendees from industry, academia, government and NGOs gathered at the Samberg Conference Center on the MIT campus to explore how the world can continue to pursue and achieve climate change goals amid turbulent times.

“The world is simultaneously confronting multiple and expanding crises: the Covid pandemic; the Russian invasion of Ukraine; stressed energy markets; supply chain disruptions; currency inflation;  climate extremes including West Coast droughts, wildfires and flooding atmospheric rivers, and South African cyclones; and most recently the chaos in our banking and financial institutions,” said MIT Joint Program Director Ronald Prinn, a professor at MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, in his opening remarks. “Despite all this turbulence, the world community must remain committed to achieving the critically needed transitions in our physical and social systems to mitigate dangerous global and regional environmental changes, while keeping our economies buoyant, equitable and sustainable.”

To that end, this year’s Forum presenters addressed climate change challenges and solutions in six sessions focused on climate and energy geopolitics; water security and conflict; impacts on food security/health/equity; decarbonization and energy security; impacts on vulnerable countries; and policy: the path forward.

Facilitated by representatives of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, each session consisted of the presentation of recent research results or insights on the topic, followed by a moderated, open discussion with all participants. As our Forums adhere to the “Chatham House Rule,” all sessions were off the record, with no press and no attribution of speakers’ comments without permission. Here, with permission from all speakers referenced below, we summarize key points from this year’s Forum presentations.