Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth
Recognizing both the critical nature and complexity of the climate and growth challenge, the University of Chicago formed the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth—a pioneering new approach to energy and climate education led by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth. The unparalleled Chicago Curriculum recognizes that to understand the climate and sustainable growth challenge, students must grapple with its foundational elements, complexities, and tradeoffs using a 360-degree approach.
A Comprehensive Foundation in Climate and Energy
The Chicago Curriculum starts with a foundational set of courses that explore the climate and growth challenge from all angles. The courses range from climate science, economics and politics to energy technologies, humanistic approaches to climate, international perspectives and climate impacts and adaptation.

Michael Greenstone
“We need a radical paradigm shift in how we approach the problem of climate change—one that appreciates that climate change is not a problem in isolation and that it must be balanced with the aspirations of billions of people on the planet who want a better life for themselves and their children. The Chicago Curriculum provides a robust, real-world understanding of the challenge using a unique approach that is designed for the students in our classrooms who will be tomorrow’s leaders.”
Experiential Learning
Fostering learning beyond the classroom is an essential component of what makes the Chicago Curriculum truly unique. That is why, after taking a set of foundational courses that explore the climate and growth challenge from all angles, students will take this toolkit of knowledge with them as they travel to several locations key to understanding global perspectives surrounding the climate and sustainable growth challenge.
For example, students could go to rural India or sub-Saharan Africa to experience life with little electricity and see what it is like to live on the frontline of climate damages; to West Texas to see the potential local economic benefits and pollution challenges of living in an energy boom town; to New York City to meet with capital allocators who are focused on private returns to their investments; and to national capitals around the world to meet with policymakers and witness how they balance the costs and benefits of climate policies.

Bala Srinivasan
“As a student, if you are to understand not just the world but yourself, there is only a limited understanding that you can get on campus. But should you go abroad and learn in Africa, in Europe, in Asia, then those environments and those academic settings almost act as a mirror in which you begin to recognize yourself, the limitations of your point of view, and how other people think in a way that’s very hard to do sitting in a classroom in Hyde Park.”

Michael Greenstone
“The September term course is a cornerstone of the curriculum that will challenge students to hold multiple competing perspectives at once and use the new interdisciplinary tools they gained through their foundational coursework to better understand how to balance these perspectives, ultimately leading to more informed citizens and leaders.”
Specializations
Once students have a strong foundation of knowledge in all aspects of the climate and sustainable growth challenge and a widened perspective, they go on to specialize in areas of interest such as climate science, economics and politics, technology, or finance. This allows students to gain an in-depth understanding of a discipline they’re interested in pursuing for a career.
Modular Design for Adoptability
A carefully developed modular design allows the Chicago Curriculum to be adopted by other universities and used in multiple contexts. In this way, the Curriculum not only fundamentally alters students’ understanding of the world’s climate and energy challenge and the solutions needed to address it, but also profoundly and globally alters climate and energy education and ultimately the workforce through an engaged network of domestic and foreign universities.