Harvard Resumes Climate Updates After Skipping Report Last Year, Omits Fossil Fuel Investment Figures

Harvard Management Company released its climate progress breakdown Wednesday after opting not to publish an annual report last year, this time omitting figures that previously detailed how much of the endowment was invested in fossil fuels.

The report, which was absent in 2025, had typically been released each spring since 2021. This year’s update, presented on a newly revamped website rather than as a formal report, lacks some of the specific metrics that appeared in past reports — including the share of the endowment invested in fossil fuel and climate-transition projects.

The 2024 report said HMC investments in private equity funds focused on fossil fuel exploration and development made up less than 2 percent of the endowment in fiscal year 2023, while climate transition investments exceeded 1 percent. Neither percentage is reflected in the 2026 breakdown.

The 2024 report also expected that exposure to climate-transition investments would surpass the share of fossil fuel exposure “in the next few years,” but the 2026 data does not specify HMC’s progress toward that goal.

HMC addressed the discrepancy in the update directly, saying it replaced the percentage disclosures with a “forward-looking analysis” that HMC believes will offer “a clearer view of both potential climate impact and commercial opportunity.”

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to share the endowment-specific figures.

The new approach focuses on the potential future emissions reductions that climate technologies could enable, rather than the proportion of the endowment investment in those projects.

Though Harvard pledged in 2021 to let its legacy investments in fossil fuels run off, HMC is still invested in some funds tied to the sector, including an energy-focused investment pool that owns shares in Sable Offshore. HMC owns roughly 60 percent of the fund, according to a Crimson analysis of Harvard’s tax returns.

HMC also reported that it has maintained carbon-neutral operations since fiscal year 2022, with 52.8 percent of operational emissions attributed to “Purchased goods and services,” according to a new data visualization analyzing HMC’s emissions.

Ninety percent of those emissions are classified as Scope 3 — indirect emissions in HMC’s value chain from sources it does not own or control. Scope 3 emissions typically account for the largest share of a company’s carbon footprint, according to CDP, a global climate nonprofit formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Harvard committed in 2020 to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for its endowment portfolio by 2050, becoming the first university endowment in the U.S. to make such a commitment.

HMC also worked with Ortec Finance, a third-party investment consultant, to assess five hypothetical climate scenarios and their impact on the endowment portfolio.

The most ambitious climate-transition scenario, Net Zero, projects a temperature outcome of roughly 1.6 degrees Celsius and assumes smooth market adjustment and rapid low-carbon policy changes. The most severe scenario, High Warming, projects 3.8 degrees Celsius and assumes no further climate policy action beyond existing trends, with severe physical effects from global warming.

The impact of the latter scenario on the endowment’s performance is stark. Under High Warming, HMC estimates that climate risks could reduce cumulative investment performance by as much as 45 percent over 15 years compared with a baseline without climate-related shocks.

“Over a 15-year horizon, physical climate risks become the dominant driver of portfolio outcomes,” the report read.

The analysis also found that a delayed transition to net zero could have a negative cumulative impact of 14 percent over five years compared with the baseline, as abrupt policy shifts and changing market conditions create near-term financial risks.

HMC said earlier decisions to underweight several high-emitting sectors reduced its exposure to some of the industries most negatively affected by climate risks.

Because HMC invests almost entirely through external fund managers, it works actively to encourage them to “identify sector-specific risks and develop scalable solutions within their respective industries.” HMC also works with Rho Impact to evaluate the “potential future emissions reductions that technologies could enable” through its climate-transition investments.

But some of the more specific engagement work detailed in older reports is missing in 2026. HMC’s 2024 report described collaborations with Climate Action 100+ and CDP campaigns, which push companies to disclose climate data and progress toward emissions reductions.

The new update does not specify whether HMC continues to participate in those initiatives.

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