Balancing the urgent need to confront climate change with society’s need for rising living standards and expanded economic growth is the defining challenge of our time. Recognizing both the critical nature and complexity of this challenge, the University of Chicago is launching a distinctive new undergraduate major in climate and sustainable growth, with enrollment beginning in fall 2025.
The major is the first degree program anchored in the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth, a pioneering new approach to energy and climate education being led by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth. Over the coming months and years, UChicago plans to launch additional degree programs based on the curriculum.
“Too often, the climate challenge is approached through silos. Science lays benchmarks without consideration of the social tradeoffs. Policies lay standards without a foundation in science and technology. Technologies are created with little grasp of the markets needed to foster them,” said Michael Greenstone, the faculty director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth.
“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,” he added. “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.”
The Chicago Curriculum starts with a foundational set of courses that explore the climate and growth challenge from multiple perspectives. These will be required for all students in the new major. The courses range from climate science, economics, politics, to energy technologies, humanistic approaches to climate, international perspectives and climate impacts and adaptation.
Learn more about the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth
“The idea is that the scientist or the engineer or the economist will go out into the world and not just have a very strong and specific understanding of their field but will have a deeper understanding of how their work fits into the bigger picture in a way that allows them to make better decisions,” said David Weisbach, co-director of the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth and the Walter J. Blum Professor of Law. “This approach will start here with University of Chicago undergraduates, but we hope it is an approach that will spread to other universities around the world. If more and more people approach climate change with this broad understanding and perspective, the world would be in a better position to take on this challenge.”
Grounded in the knowledge obtained through the foundational courses, students will take an experiential course during a special September term, in which they will travel to several locations key to understanding global perspectives surrounding the climate and sustainable growth challenge. For example, the course could bring students 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 capitals around the world to meet with policymakers and witness how they balance the costs and benefits of climate policies.
“There’s only so much one can learn about the world sitting in Hyde Park,” said David Keith, co-director of the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth and a professor in geophysical sciences. “The experiential course will allow students to better understand competing perspectives they will encounter in the outside world by giving them a chance to talk with people balancing the climate and growth challenge every day. We hope this wider view will inform their future careers as citizens and professionals.”
Once students have a strong foundation of knowledge in all aspects of the climate and sustainable growth challenge, they go on to specialize in areas of interest: climate science, economics and politics, or finance.
“With this innovative curriculum, we are transforming how a generation of young people learns about climate change,” said Greenstone. “The Chicago Curriculum teaches students to have a 360-degree view of the climate challenge, appreciate varied perspectives, become more informed citizens and learn how to develop lasting solutions.”
The Chicago Curriculum builds off a landscape of complementary majors that the College has developed for students interested in climate issues in recent years. These include CEGU (Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization), which emphasizes approaches drawn from the humanities and social sciences, as well as geophysical sciences and environmental science. The new major will reside within the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division.
