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Discover climate course materials and resources.
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- Course
Following the events of Hurricane Sandy, New York City has emerged as a leading city for climate action, pushing forward and experimenting with a broad range of climate policies and tools, including climate adaptation and resilience measures, decarbonization actions and legislation, environmental justice, and fossil fuel divestment, among others.
This course will offer a focused study of New York City’s approach to confronting our climate crisis. This will include an exploration of the many actions taken by NYC, their effectiveness, proposals to build upon or improve them, and their comparisons to other actions around the globe. This course is designed to encourage active discussion, participation, and practical application of the material.
The assignments and activities aim to help students build a solid understanding of key concepts while developing analytical skills, which will then apply to real-world scenarios. Guest lecturers with experience in New York City’s climate policy actions may join from time to time.
- Topics on: Decarbonization, Policy, Resilence
- Course
Natural-based solutions (Nbs) refer to actions aimed at protecting, better managing, and restoring nature to achieve climate goals. Adopting sustainable agricultural practices following agroecology principles provides a cost-effective Nbs pathway to mitigate climate impacts, while also ensuring food security and environmental sustainability. This course will introduce the principles of agroecology, the key concepts of carbon and nitrogen dynamics, as well as the commonly adopted agroecological practices across various agricultural landscapes, including croplands, grasslands, agroforestry, and urban agricultural systems. A combination of lectures, discussions, and field activities will be utilized to demonstrate how agroecological practices can be monitored in terms of their influence on ecosystem services.
This course will prepare students to apply principles of sustainability science to improved soil and agricultural management, addressing the growing need for better adoption of land based Nbs. This course will also delve into the technological aspects of Nbs monitoring that will help working professionals in conservation, environmental, and sustainable business organizations develop the necessary skills to evaluate the outcomes of sustainable land management practices to inform management decisions, policy making, and incentive-based programs. Designed to meet the degree requirements for Area 2 (Methods of Earth Observation and Measurement) and Area 5 (Sustainability Policy or Management) for the M.S. in Sustainability Science Program, this elective course aims to connect scientific methods with decision-making processes to prepare students to be leaders in sustainability and make impacts on both local and large-scale climate issues.
- Topics on: Food
- Course
Most recently taught Fall 2025
The goal of this course is to introduce fundamental principles of carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) that enable carbon management and are necessary for climate change mitigation. This is a survey-style class – different CCUS technology options will be introduced and their underlying fundamental scientific and engineering principles will be taught. Real-world technologies in the carbon capture industry and examples of advanced scientific research in the field of CCUS will be discussed throughout the course. Course topics will include: point source carbon capture for power and industrial sources, carbon dioxide removal and direct air capture, electrochemical and thermochemical CO2 conversion, carbon mineralization and CO2 transport and storage. Additionally, students will learn to perform systems-level design and analyses of carbon management technologies and will be introduced to Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Technoeconomic Analysis (TEA) that can be applied to carbon management technologies and other engineering and design problems. Public engagement, social and environmental justice and policy considerations around carbon management will be discussed but the course focus will be science and technology. The course will have a significant emphasis on collaborative learning and will include a group design project focused on design and analysis of a carbon management process.
- Topics on: Decarbonization, Science
- Course
This Physical Dimensions/Quantitative Analytics course will provide real-world information about energy management. Through lectures, problem sets, and readings, students will learn about energy audits, analyze the energy performance of various technologies, and evaluate the energy use and financial impacts of upgrades and operational improvements to building systems. Pending permission from various NYC job sites, we will also make a handful of field trips to view various energy-consuming technologies in vivo. This course is designed to provide all sustainability students with quantitative analytical tools.
While this course focuses largely on energy-efficiency in buildings, the principles involved apply to all areas of sustainability decision-making.
The course is a full-semester, in-person elective, and is generally open, space permitting and with the instructor’s written approval, to cross-registrants from all other Columbia University programs. There are no prerequisites, but students are strongly urged to acquire at least basic Excel skills, either on their own or via SUMA’s training resources.
- Topics on: Energy
- Course
Most recently taught Fall 2025
This course will educate students and support effective coastal resilience planning and climate justice, through social and data science learning and data acquisition and analysis, making use of emerging technologies and best practices for collaboration with environmental and climate justice practitioners.
Instruction is provided in two areas: i. climate adaptation planning & climate justice; and, ii. data science: acquisition, analysis and visualization. Students and instructors will work with two participating community-based climate and environmental justice organizations to collect and analyze biological, geographic and socio-economic data relevant to local resilience needs. Once the data has been acquired or generated and quality-assured, the students and community partner organizations will prepare it for presentation to federal, state and local planning officials, to help ensure that the resilience goals and related concerns identified by our community partners will be fully reflected in future planning by those officials.
- Topics on: Justice, Planning
- Course
Most recently taught Spring 2025
Providing for clean drinking water, healthy aquatic ecosystems and sustainable energy supplies is a growing challenge in today’s resource-hungry and climate-impacted world. True, lasting water and energy sustainability will require a combination of legal reforms, social cooperation and technical innovation with few if any precedents in US history. GU4050 examines the laws, social forces and technologies that have shaped America’s current water and energy policies and considers how these policies must change for us to achieve long-term sustainability. Class will be held in Martin Luther King (MLK) 609 on Mondays from 4:10 – 6 pm.
- Topics on: Energy, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught Spring 2025
As human populations continue to expand, concurrent increases in energy and food will be required. Consequently, fossil fuel burning and deforestation will continue to be human-derived sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This increase in CO2 and other infra-red trapping gases is of consequence to human health—but for two reasons. The first is one you are all familiar with—climatic change—and the consequences from heat to air pollution, from water quality to migration. The second reason is that CO2 is the source of carbon for plants—and hence for all living things. And that increase, of and by itself, will also impact human health—directly (allergic dermatitis) and indirectly (human nutrition, medicine). In this course, our focus will be on how CO2 and climate change alter plant biology and the subsequent consequences for human health.
Overall, the course will have three main components. We begin with an overview of interactions between the plant kingdom and human health with a climate lens. In the second section we segue to a global overview of rising CO2 and climate change, and how those impacts, in turn, will influence all of the interactions related to plant biology and health with a merited focus on food security. Finally, for the remainder of the course, our emphasis will be on evaluating preventative strategies related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts specific to potential transformations of plant biology’s traditional role in human society, and to communicate those evaluations simply and understandably to a lay audience.
The course is appropriate for students who are interested in global climate change and who wish to expand their general knowledge as to likely outcomes related to plant biology, and the consequences to human health, including food security, nutrition, pollen allergens, and ethnopharmacology.
- Topics on: Food, Planning
- Course
The goal of this course is to introduce fundamental principles of carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) that enable carbon management and are necessary for climate change mitigation. This is a survey-style class – different CCUS technology options will be introduced and their underlying fundamental scientific and engineering principles will be taught.
Real-world technologies in the carbon capture industry and examples of advanced scientific research in the field of CCUS will be discussed throughout the course. Course topics will include: point source carbon capture for power and industrial sources, carbon dioxide removal and direct air capture, electrochemical and thermochemical CO2 conversion, carbon mineralization and CO2 transport and storage.
- Topics on: Decarbonization, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught in Spring 2025
Climate change is causing preventable injuries, illnesses, and deaths, with each additional unit of warming projected to further increase morbidity and mortality from most climate-sensitive health outcomes without additional, timely, and effective investments in adaptation and rapid and sufficient reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Vulnerable populations and regions will be differentially affected, with the potential to increase poverty and inequities.
The effects of climate change are already harming health around the world, and impacts will only intensify in the coming years. Heat waves and extreme events are increasing in frequency and strength, and sea level poses an existential threat for many urban areas. A number of major health risks are plant related. These include food and water security, changes in plant based medicines, pesticide usage, and seasonal rhinitis.
Risks for some vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are projected to increase with warming from 1.5°C to 2°C, including potential shifts in their geographic range and changes in their seasonal distribution.
Adaptation (adjustments in response to actual or expected climatic shifts) and mitigation (efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) are the primary policy responses to the health risks of climate change. Health adaptation can reduce the current and projected burdens of climate-sensitive health outcomes over the short term in many countries, mitigation in health practice and management is an additional possibility. However, under high emission scenarios, climate change will be rapid and extensive, leading to fundamental shifts in the burden of climate-sensitive health outcomes that will challenging for many countries to manage. Such challenges will be unprecedented, and there is a fundamental need for MPH candidates to communicate and address these risks in ways that are meaningful to a lay public.
- Topics on: Adaptation, Planning, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught in Fall 2025
Climate change is a threat multiplier. To eliminate inequities in climate risk, it is essential to understand the social, economic, and political factors and processes that contribute to uneven vulnerability and shape adaptive capacity in historically marginalized communities. This course explores these issues, framed by the concept of climate justice, to better explain how and why the situation is as it is presently. In this course, we will bring together interdisciplinary scholarship, social science data, commentary, case studies, policy innovations, advocacy, and practice to examine how climate change shapes society, how social systems influence our efforts to address climate change impacts, and how effectively proposed solutions respond to these impacts.
- Topics on: Justice, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught in Summer 2025
Disaster management is a continuum that is affected by decisions, investments and dynamics that occur before, during and after disasters. The issue of equity in disaster management is emerging from an abundance of evidence that shows that societal inequities often translate into inequitable outcomes and disproportionate impacts from disasters. Community engagement strategies are often touted as a solution to the inequities, but many aspects of community participation are complex, with additional effort and investments required for working with vulnerable and marginalized communities. Further, power dynamics between disaster experts and vulnerable communities may bias approaches to disaster management as well as representation within relevant power structures. This seminar is designed to provide an introduction to some of the variables that impact vulnerability and inequity in disaster management, ultimately leading to inequitable outcomes. It also provides an overview of current and emerging strategies in community engagement designed to foster a “whole of community” approach to disaster management.
This course is designed as an elective to the Climate and Society Master of Arts degree program. The purpose of this course is to prepare those entering the climate policy and practice workforce for addressing these challenges by providing an overview of issues of equity and building community partnerships in disaster management. At the end of this course learners will be able to:
- Describe social determinants of disaster vulnerability and resilience
- Describe how governance and financial structures can drive inequity in the disaster cycle
- Identify whole community approaches for disaster management
- Identify mechanisms to develop partnerships with underserved communities and emergent partners in disaster management
- Demonstrate the ability to develop strategies for disaster management based on best practices for community engagement and addressing equity concerns.
This course is open to graduate students in the Climate and Society MA program as well as others in sustainability management or related programs with an interest in disaster management in the face of climate change.
- Topics on: Planning, Policy, Resilence, Science
- Course
Most recently taught in Fall 2024
As climate related disasters continue to grow, the impacts of climate change and sustainable development on disaster threats and vulnerabilities are increasingly pronounced. Many of those in the field of disaster management are having to contend with increasing frequency and severity of disasters. Concurrently, disaster risk reduction and response frameworks are struggling to meet the challenge of 21st century disasters. At the same time, the field of disaster research is generating new insights into how the built environment, social structures, and ecological dynamics are intersecting to set the stage for disaster vulnerability, and thus can be better engineered for resilience. As this field continues to evolve, many who many not necessarily identify as disaster managers are also increasingly involved in disaster management in some capacity. With this, the dynamics of disaster risk reduction and disaster management are essential in working with communities and negotiating development activities in ways that are inclusive of a broad range of values, goals and incentive structures.
This course is designed as an elective to the Climate and Society Master of Arts degree program. The purpose of this course is to prepare those entering the climate policy and practice workforce for addressing these challenges by providing an overview of the field of disaster management within the context of climate change and climate driven disasters. At the end of this course learners will be able to:
- Describe how climate change is impacting hazards and vulnerabilities to disasters
- Describe how domestic and international frameworks are evolving in the context of climate chance and disasters
- Apply insights from social, physical and behavioral sciences to climate change related disaster management strategies
- Demonstrate the ability to negotiate complex disaster resilience issues across competing interests
- Articulate value propositions for disaster and climate change resilience efforts to multiple stakeholders
This course is open to graduate students in the Climate and Society MA programs as well as others in sustainability management or related programs with an interest in disaster management in the face of climate change.
- Topics on: Planning, Resilence, Science
- Course
Most recently taught Spring 2025
Ensuring that food systems deliver food security and nutrition, fair livelihoods, and environmental sustainability is a grand challenge for governments and other food system actors, with many competing, contentious issues. Conflicts regarding land, technology, natural resources, subsidies, inequity, migration, and trade all play out in the food policy arena. Some argue that to effectively address all of the goals that food systems should achieve, they must be efficient, equitable, and sustainable. However, the political framing of how food systems are designed, function, and governed is determined by a complex set of networks of individuals and institutions with vested interests. This course is designed to introduce and guide students to:
- Investigate the equity and ethical issues of food systems in policy and practice.
- Deliberate critically about various conflicting views of who is vulnerable, marginalized, and disadvantaged across food systems, why, and the consequences of those inequities.
- Explore where there are inequities in accessing food and the implications of policies in achieving food security.
- Analyze the range of food policies and the political landscape of food in high-, middle-, and low-income countries that impact global food security, human nutrition, and broader aspects of health, food safety, economics, and the environment and climate.
- Debate who is responsible for ensuring food systems are equitable and through which policy instruments.
The course borrows tools from food systems, political science, practical ethics, political philosophy, and theories of justice to illuminate these issues that determine our common future and the way we personally and socially relate to the food we grow and eat.
- Topics on: Food, Justice, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught in Spring 2025
Food systems are a complex web of the activities and actors engaged in the production, processing, transport, retail, trade, consumption, and waste of food. Climate change and variability are and will continue to impact how food systems function, some due to the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as droughts, floods, cold spells, and other disrupting events. The way food systems are managed, in turn, instigates and perpetuates climate change and global environmental change. Increasing the resilience of food systems to a changing climate while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation is vital for human welfare.
This graduate-level course provides an overview of current and future anthropogenic climate change impacts on food systems and vice versa. The first few weeks of the course will ground students on concepts and dynamics of food systems and “systems thinking.” The next several weeks of classes will explore the relationship between climate change impacts across food systems and how the governance, management, and activities of food systems impact climate and environmental change. We will also explore mitigation and adaptation measures and solutions across food systems. In the last few classes, we will discuss the trade-offs in food systems transformations and possible pathways for the future. Throughout the course, we will undertake deep-dive case studies to provide local context to this complex relationship between climate change and food.
- Topics on: Food, Policy
- Course
Most recently taught in Spring 2025.
Climate change is the world’s most perfect public policy problem: it’s more global, more long-term, more uncertain, and more irreversible than most others. It stands alone in the combination of all four. That also turns it into the world’s most perfect global externality problem: the benefits of fossil-fuel use are internalized, the costs largely externalized. And while misguided market forces are the root cause of climate change, guiding them in the right direction is fundamental to the solution. In this course we explore the fast-changing global climate policy landscape shaping business. We explore the economic principles at work, analyze individual corporate and finance efforts to lead, dive into the regulatory environments around the world, and look to how the clean-energy race creates unique challenges and opportunities.
- Topics on: Policy
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Full syllabus to be posted soon!
Climate risk is real. It is costly to the economy, society, and the world, as evidenced by high and ever-increasing Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimates. Most businesses and corporations, meanwhile, experience climate risk mostly indirectly, via policy, technology, and market risks. This class focuses on climate risks head on, exploring to which extent they also pose direct financial risks to business now and in the near future. Along the way, we will answer a number of questions, such as: If climate change is so costly, why does it not show up (more) in asset prices? If climate pollution is so bad, why is polluting so profitable? We will also dive into questions around insurability of physical assets like real estate, stress testing of financial assets, and corporate scenario planning. Lastly, we will discuss risk as opportunity for those relatively better able to take advantage of risks and uncertainties.
- Topics on: Resilence, Science, Technology
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Most recently taught in Spring 2025.
Climate Tech refers to a broad range of technologies designed to mitigate the drivers and impacts of climate change. Development and commercialization of these technologies is essential if humanity is to maintain global prosperity while also avoiding catastrophic climate change. This immersion course provides students with the opportunity to work on a real-world technology to address climate change.
Students will be placed in teams of four, composed of two CBS students and two SEAS students. Student teams will be matched with venture capital funds actively financing climate tech that have identified an innovative technology for mitigating or adapting to climate change. Students will meet virtually with their assigned venture fund at the beginning of the course, during a mid-point check-in, and at the end of the course for the final presentation. The funds will provide guidance on technologies, sectors, and approaches most likely to receive early-stage investments.
Each team will be tasked with assessing their assigned technology on (i) technical viability, (ii) commercial opportunity, (iii) impact on mitigating or adapting to climate change, and (iv) target companies for potential investment. The course deliverables are a presentation to the course professors and classmates, a presentation to each team’s assigned investment fund, and a written report to the investment fund. Students are also required to complete a reflections assignment at the conclusion of the course. During weeks 4 – 11, when you’re working with the venture capital fund, you will spend up to nine hours every week doing independent research, collaborating with the fund, and completing assignments.
The purpose of this immersion course is for students to learn to work in teams across different skill sets and disciplines, combining expertise in business and engineering, with the objective of learning how to evaluate technology solutions to climate change. This course is designed to replicate the real-world experience in which collaborative teams use a multi-disciplinary approach to assess the opportunities, challenges, and impacts of new technology solutions to climate change.
- Topics on: Technology
- Course
Most recently taught in Fall 2025.
Climate change represents one of the most profound challenges—and opportunities—of our time. Meeting the global goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will require a fundamental transformation of the global economy and the mobilization of trillions of dollars in capital. This unprecedented transition is reshaping risk and return across financial markets and creating a new frontier for investment.
This course explores the role of finance in accelerating climate solutions and managing climate-related risks. Building on the foundational concepts introduced in Business and Climate Change (B8705), the course examines key financial instruments, institutions, and strategies used to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy. Topics include:
- Carbon Markets and Offsets: Understanding the mechanics, risks, and investment potential of carbon markets, emissions trading, and offsets.
- Project Finance: Structuring the financing of renewable energy projects.
- Development Finance: Understanding the unique challenges and solutions to financing infrastructure in developing economies.
- Venture Capital and Growth Equity: Exploring how venture capital and private equity support the development of breakthrough climate technologies or “climate tech”.
- Public Markets: Assessing investment approaches in public equities, including divestment, shareholder activism, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration.
- Debt Markets and Insurance: Investigating fixed income instruments, securitization, and the role of catastrophe bonds in climate risk management.
- Adaptation Finance: Overcoming the challenge of financing climate change adaptation projects.
- Financed Emissions: Evaluating how banks are aligning with net-zero commitments.
The course concludes with a discussion on career paths in climate finance and the evolving role of the financial sector in shaping a sustainable future.
- Topics on: Finance
- Resource
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions—or C2ES—forges practical and innovative solutions to address climate change and engages with leading businesses to accelerate climate progress. Founded in 1998 as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, C2ES is known worldwide as a thought leader and trusted convener on climate change and energy. We consistently rank among the world’s leading environmental policy think tanks in the University of Pennsylvania Global Go To Think Tank Index.
Educator Resources – https://www.c2es.org/content/teacher-resources/
- Topics on: Finance, Investing, Justice
- Course
Most Asset Managers are evaluating how to incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance factors into their investment process. Applying ESG considerations raises the following questions:
How specifically is a company rated on ESG guidelines? Is there subjectivity in the process because of data limitations and assumptions made in data interpretation?
Does consideration of ESG factors improve investment performance?
For investors that emphasize ESG factors for non-financial reasons, how dothey measure the positive societal impact their portfolio is having?
Does an investor add more positive impact buying “good” companies, or focusingon “bad” companies and trying to change their behavior?
How does an Asset Manager use the power of the Proxy vote and CorporateEngagement to affect change in Environmental, Social and Governance policies?In this course we focus on how Asset Managers address these questions using a combination of lectures, case students and guest speakers. This course explores ESG issues faced by the Asset Manager. It does not address how a company manages its ESG risks and opportunities.The course has three main sections:
Building Blocks
Best Practices in Asset Management
Social Activism and the Future of ESG Investing
- Topics on: ESG, Finance, Investing