Higher education can play a pivotal role in building a more equitable climate-resilient world. Institutions of higher education are positioned to advance climate justice through multiple avenues: as sites of learning and research; through empowering student activism; by fostering relationships with their surrounding communities; and taking direct climate action including divesting from fossil fuels and building sustainable campuses.
Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development are some of the fastest growing fields in both education and employment. And, there are great universities in the US, such as Arizona State, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and Stanford, for example, providing extraordinary leadership in climate change.
There are numerous lists ranking the best universities in specific environmental fields already available:
Some unique programs include the Climate Justice Field School summer program at Temple University, CUNY’s Climate Scholars program, Barnard’s Environmental Humanities minor and Political Ecology track, Vermont Law’s Masters in Environmental Policy, and University of Michigan’s interdisciplinary, collaborative Program in the Environment.
Of course, another important role of universities is research, and research identifying critical climate impacts and how to best divest from fossil fuels and lead a just transition is urgently necessary. However, as Jennie C. Stephens explains in her book Climate Justice and the University (2024), “our collective insufficient response to the climate crisis is related to what’s been happening in our higher education institutions, which are increasingly very financialized… We’ve drifted away from the public-good mission of higher education.” As Stephens argues, the same companies that have been obstructing climate action are strategically investing in universities, such that projects are funded by fossil fuel and oil companies, constraining research opportunities and catering to their interests.
Starting in 2011, the student-led fossil fuel divestment movement cropped up on campuses globally, becoming the “fastest-growing divestment movement in history.” These campaigns drew on the strategies of the anti-apartheid divestment movements on college campuses in the 1980s. As of 2023, 3% of 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. had divested from fossil fuels. Student pressure and organizing is immensely powerful, as revealed in the story of why Harvard finally capitulated in 2021, committing to divest from fossil fuels after over a decade of student-led activism towards this goal.
The fossil-fuel divestment movement sparked large-scale institutional change. Some campuses have set goals for decarbonizing, while others have developed climate action plans rivaling those of states and cities. UMass Amherst, for example, has set a goal of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2032, Yale has pledged zero-campus emissions by 2050, and Princeton by 2046. The University of California’s “Framework for J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Centered Climate Resilience Planning” aims to guide its campuses toward carbon neutrality by 2025, and Portland Community College’s Climate Action Plan includes goals in curriculum, outreach, energy, transportation, water use, and resiliency. The University of British Columbia, meanwhile, took bold action by declaring a climate emergency in 2019, establishing a Climate Emergency Task Force and releasing period progress reports.
Students might explore some climate solutions in a game built at a community college in Santa Fe. Learn about it here and look here to see the game played.
For K-12 education and ways to take action in school, please see our YOUTH pages.
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 10/25/19
