ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

Balancing the risks of a changing climate with the essential need for human progress.

Our Approach

Humans weren't put on the planet to minimize climate change. They weren't put on the planet to maximize GDP. They were put on the planet to live good lives — and promoting growth and confronting climate change are both essential to that purpose. The Institute’s approach follows that conviction, combining frontier research with a pioneering approach to education.

Institute Building Blocks

There are three areas where the gap between the world as it is and the world as it needs to be is widest: The Incentives Problem, The Inherited Problem, and The Innovation Problem. The Institute is confronting them.

Confronting the incentive problem by aligning incentives so energy markets work better to close the gap between private and social costs.

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Confronting the inherited problem by not only tackling how we stop making things worse — but how we protect the people already living with the consequences.

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Confronting the innovation problem by building better batteries — the enabling technology for the entire energy transition.

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Interdisciplinary Rigor

No single discipline can solve the climate challenge. It demands economists, scientists, engineers, and policy experts coming together. The Institute fosters this vibrant climate and energy ecosystem, seeding new initiatives and creating new programs to bridge disciplinary divides and cultivate an intellectual community.

Global Approach

The climate challenge is global — and, most acute in the Global South, where the communities suffering most from climate change are the same communities that most urgently need economic growth. The Institute is driving impact in these areas most central to the global climate and growth challenge.

Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth

Through a multidisciplinary educational program, the Institute prepares an entire generation of leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs to see the climate challenge from its many angles and develop an understanding of what is required economically, technically, and politically to confront it.

Research to Impact

Universities produce the world's best ideas but aren’t good at getting them out. Think tanks get the ideas out but aren’t good at producing data-driven, tested ideas. The gap between those two models is where most of the action on the world's hardest problems gets lost. The Institute was built to occupy that gap.

Our Team

Faculty Advisory Committee

A diverse faculty committee advises the Institute in its strategic initiatives and programs.
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Leadership & Staff

The Institute brings together preeminent scholars and leading practitioners to lead its efforts.
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Visiting Fellows

The Institute brings senior leaders from industry and government to campus for regular interactions and mentorship with UChicago students.
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Programs & Labs

The Institute brings together scholars to foster high-impact results through several programs.
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