Axios highlights the Lab's expanded mission and new executive director.
Axios
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March 16, 2026
The Climate Impact Lab, a major University of Chicago-based research hub, is beginning a new phase to help countries adapt to global warming.
Why it matters: Bracing for harms is getting more focus amid recognition that temperatures will blow past Paris Agreement goals.
Driving the news: The lab will “develop a global playbook of data-driven, tested adaptation strategies to address the greatest impacts in the most vulnerable regions — largely in the Global South,” it said.
What’s next: A new executive director alongside the expanded mission.
Genevieve Maricle is a former National Security Council climate and development aide in the Biden White House, and was also a top USAID official.
The bottom line: With stronger weather extremes, heat waves and farming impacts already unfolding, “policies to confront climate change must treat adaptation as a co-equal partner with mitigation,” the lab said.
