By Eliot Aguera y Arcas
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth will introduce a new interdisciplinary undergraduate major and minor in Climate and Sustainable Growth beginning in fall quarter 2025. Housed in the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the program will give students a climate-oriented foundation in economics, policy, and energy technologies.
After a sequence of seven foundational courses, students will have the option to choose between three specializations: Climate Science and Technology; Politics, Economics, and Society; or Finance.
The major owes its formulation to the same 2023 report that led to the launch of the Institute itself in October 2024. The report was composed by a faculty committee, chaired by Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics Michael Greenstone, tasked with assessing the University’s interests and obligations in the climate space. The report laid out a broad program to promote climate research and reduce institutional emissions. Greenstone now serves as the Institute’s founding director.
In his initial announcement of the Institute, University President Paul Alivisatos promised that “a number of education-based initiatives and programs will be developed to cut across many disciplines and research topics.”
The major has been in development for two years, answering what Greenstone described as “an insatiable demand” for new curricula on climate. In recent years, the University has seen an increasing number of majors in climate-related fields.