Christian Stirling Haig

Christian Stirling Haig is a Norwegian-American dual citizen who grew up facing the impacts of climate change in both South Florida and Arctic Norway. He is pursuing a concurrent MPP with the Harvard Kennedy School and JD with Georgetown University. His work has focused on polar and oceans governance, coastal climate resiliency, and climate adaptation.

At the Kennedy School, his work has focused on climate adaptation, Arctic and oceans governance, and coastal climate resiliency. He is a Belfer Young Leaders Fellow, was in the pan-university Climate Leaders Program and co-founded the Climate Leadership Summit, which has become the Kennedy School’s annual student climate conference. With the Belfer Center Arctic Initiative, he worked as a research assistant, participated in the Arctic Academy for Social and Environmental Leadership with the University of Iceland, and submitted a winning policy proposal at the Arctic Circle Assembly’s Arctic Innovation Lab. He received a Dukakis Governors’ Fellowship, during which he architected a sweeping land conservation executive order for North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper that set state goals to conserve and restore land areas larger than Rhode Island.

At Georgetown, his legal studies have focused on public international environmental law, climate trade tools, and legal tools to accelerate climate adaptation. He is a Global Law Scholar, was a student fellow at the Institute for International Economic Law, and was a student attorney for the Georgetown Environmental Law and Justice Clinic. He is a managing editor of the Georgetown Environmental Law Review, his research has been published by the Environmental Law Reporter, and his submission won the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law’s national writing competition.

Haig received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with Highest Distinction, Honors, and Phi Beta Kappa. He holds an LLM from the University of Tromsø–The Arctic University of Norway, where his thesis focused on the developing legal regime for climate adaptation. He has held professional positions with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, and the Environmental Law Institute
Haig is a fluent Norwegian speaker and has studied French and Russian. In his free time, he is a cider-brewer, sculptor, and woodcut printmaker.