The Columbia Climate School's mission is to develop and inspire knowledge-based solutions and educate future leaders for just and prosperous societies on a healthy planet.
News Highlights
Cutting Confederate Ties, the U.S. Navy Names Ships for a Pioneering Female Oceanographer and a Daring Enslaved Pilot
Marie Tharp was a marine scientist in a man’s world. Robert Smalls was a skilled sailor, but held as a slave. Both are now being honored by the U.S. Navy.
Whole Food Systems: Jessica Fanzo Looks at How Food Connects With Everything Else
The Columbia Climate School’s newest faculty member strives to improve food systems to deliver healthy, equitable, and environmentally sustainable diets.
Without Changes, Global Food Systems May Drive World Beyond Climate Targets, Says Study
Production of meat, dairy and rice are the leading sources of food-related emissions. Improved management practices and changes in diet could go a long way to addressing the issues.
Education
Columbia University is a global leader in climate and sustainability education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Education programs at the Columbia Climate School provide the interdisciplinary knowledge base for future climate leaders to work with businesses, communities, governments, and civil society to address the climate crisis.
Research
Columbia Climate School nurtures and supports innovative research in the science, consequences, and human dimensions of climate change, including the methods of achieving a more sustainable and just world.

The Columbia Climate School encompasses the Earth Institute, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and more than 20 other centers and programs, supporting a continuum of research, from basic discovery to societal solutions.

Our Office of Research nurtures our community of established and future environmental leaders through proposal development, programmatic engagement, and compliance support.
Impact
The Columbia Climate School translates its academic work into evidence-based analysis and advice to inform decision- and policy-makers in communities, governments, industries, and nonprofits in the US and globally.
New Website Tracks Inflation Reduction Act’s Climate Provisions
IRAtracker.org is a free resource that includes a searchable database of the bill’s climate change-related provisions and actions taken by federal agencies to implement those provisions.
A Just Transition for Women: Working Toward Digital Literacy in India
As the digital divide grows, women in India are dropping out of the workforce. Columbia Climate School’s Center for Sustainable Development and the non-profit Mahashakti Seva Kendra are working together to reverse this trend.
Maprooms Turn ‘Shapeless’ Climate Data Into Powerful Tools of Action
‘Maprooms’ are freely accessible, online analytical and visualization tools to make climate data more usable. Developed at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, they are now being tailored and scaled to support adaptation in African agriculture.