News — Today the University of Chicago is launching a new institute that is distinct in embracing the need for both climate action and sustainable growth. The new is built on the understanding that progress on climate change will require a comprehensive strategy – continuing to fuel economic growth during the energy transition, pursuing new energy technologies to power this transition, and evaluating ways to address the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere.
You can read UChicago’s complete announcement of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth .
As the world races against time to confront the climate crisis, it’s become clear that focusing exclusively on the science of climate change and emissions reductions will not meet the challenge. Increasingly, the search for climate solutions is looking beyond just urging individuals to change behavior or hoping technology alone can solve the problem.
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth will support innovative research and education in three areas of focus:
- Economics and Policy – Building on UChicago’s leadership in economics, the institute will analyze the costs of climate change while designing market structures needed to balance the often conflicting goals of decarbonization and economic growth.
- Energy Technologies – The Institute will develop scalable clean energy technologies, especially cheap, long-duration energy storage, to enable a just energy transition. It will be led by the nation’s largest cluster of energy technology experts on campus and at Argonne National Laboratory (administered by UChicago) — now home to one of two DOE national battery hubs.
- Climate Systems Engineering – Understanding that decarbonization alone may not be enough to address the climate crisis, the Institute will assess ways of managing the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere, including the policy implications and potential risks of such approaches.
On the education front, the Institute announced the creation of the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth, which will serve as the foundation for a series of new degree programs at the undergraduate and master’s levels at the University of Chicago. Through a 360-degree approach, the curriculum will expose students to the foundational ideas, tradeoffs, and complexities of the global climate and sustainable growth challenge in a way that no other university globally has to date.
UChicago scholars have already shown the promise of such a balanced approach to climate problems. In recent years, UChicago researchers have joined with several Indian states to pilot trading markets for various types of pollutants, creating powerful incentives for industries to limit pollution and optimize their operations. In the most advanced market, pollution dropped by up to 30 percent at no additional cost to participating industries.
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