Yale and Global Climate Change
Learn more about Yale’s work addressing climate change.
Administrative, partnership, advocacy, engagement, educational, and research efforts at Yale to address global climate change
Learn more about Yale’s work addressing climate change.
Yale is one of 15 leading research universities from 6 continents that work together through the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate to amplify and share research on the climate crisis and provide a platform for further scholarship and advocacy. Yale’s participation in the alliance is led by Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy Daniel C. Esty.
Launched by President Peter Salovey and Provost Scott Strobel in December 2020, the Planetary Solutions Project is Yale’s flagship effort to accelerate how Yale addresses the global climate crisis. The Planetary Solutions Project works across the university and marshals resources to expand research and teaching to address the causes of the global crisis and makes substantive changes to the operations and financial investments of the university to ensure resources are being used sustainably.
Across the campus, Yale University officials are being held accountable for the carbon footprint of their own operations. Administrative units will be charged for the carbon dioxide equivalent of their operations. Among other benefits, the Yale Carbon Charge will provide funding to energy efficiencies on campus, helping Yale meet its pledge to eliminate carbon emissions from campus by 2050.
Yale’s climate leadership extends to the management of campus affairs, with Yale Sustainability office providing visionary guidance on improving infrastructure, changing behaviors, and conducting business to create a more sustainable campus.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a biennial report produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Center on Climate Change and Health offers Masters of Public Health students a climate change and health concentration and provides an online certificate and a Coursera specialization in climate change and health.
Each year, members of the Yale community engage directly with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Yale’s influence in the discourse was on display both within and on the vital periphery of the UNFCCC’s Conference of the Parties (COP26) negotiations in Glasgow in 2021. Yale students, faculty, scholars, and alumni have impacted and participated in both the formal talks and related advocacy, scholarship, and analysis of the negotiations.