Climate Change Policy and Diplomacy

This course examines the central challenges of climate change policy and diplomacy through three core questions: What should the world do about climate change? Why have past efforts largely failed? How can more effective strategies be developed? Drawing on perspectives from science, economics, ethics, international law, and game theory, students will explore both normative and practical dimensions of global climate action.

The course reviews the scientific basis and projected impacts of climate change, evaluates technological and economic options for reducing emissions, and analyzes the history and design of international agreements from the Framework Convention to the Paris Agreement. Students will consider issues such as policy coordination, compliance incentives, trade linkages, and the role of unilateral measures and geoengineering.

• W 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• M noon-1:05 p.m.
• M 1:15 p.m.-2:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Scott Barrett
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Energy and Power Financing Markets

Energy & Power Finance Ma

This course explores the financing structures that underpin the development and transformation of global energy and power markets. Students will examine how asset-based, project, and tax-driven financing mechanisms have evolved to meet the growing demands for conventional and clean energy, and how these tools can be leveraged to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Through case studies and lectures, the course introduces the financial, regulatory, and policy frameworks that shape energy markets, with an emphasis on U.S. practices and instruments. Topics include reserve-based lending in oil and gas, project financing for power generation, Master Limited Partnerships in midstream infrastructure, and renewable energy finance strategies. Special focus is placed on aligning commercial viability with sustainable development objectives, addressing greenhouse gas emissions, and ensuring affordable access to energy. Students will develop applied skills in evaluating financing approaches, assessing project risks, and reconciling financial structures with physical energy system requirements.

• M 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Brooks James Klimley
  Info
• 3 points

Renewable Energy Project Finance Modelin

Renewable Energy Finance

This course provides a rigorous introduction to renewable energy project finance modeling, focusing on the concepts, structures, and financial mechanisms that underpin investment in renewable energy projects such as wind and solar. Through lectures, demonstrations, and guided analysis of actual project documents and contracts, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the key drivers of renewable energy economics and financing.

Students will examine debt structuring, cash flow analysis, revenue modeling, risk assessment, tax incentives, and the impact of policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The course emphasizes the development of best practices in financial modeling and the critical evaluation of project structures, with particular attention to the challenges and considerations unique to renewable energy assets.

Participants will learn to analyze project agreements, assess project risks, build robust financial models, and evaluate project viability from the perspective of developers, lenders, and investors. The curriculum integrates lectures on technical and contractual fundamentals, discussion of policy implications, and instruction on modeling techniques, culminating in the creation of a detailed project finance model.

• M 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• None None-None
• 3 points

Artificial Intelligence and Climate Chan

AI and Climate Change

This advanced seminar examines the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The course explores how AI can reduce greenhouse gas emissions across key sectors such as power, manufacturing, and food systems, as well as the challenges posed by AI’s own energy use and carbon footprint. Students analyze opportunities and risks associated with deploying AI tools for climate action, including large language models and machine learning applications.

• W 8 a.m.-9:50 a.m.
• 1.5 points

Electricity Markets

This course examines the evolution and future of electricity markets worldwide in the context of liberalization, decarbonization, and technological change. As clean energy costs decline and electrification accelerates, the power sector faces increasing pressure to deliver reliable, affordable, and low-emission electricity. The course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the structure and operation of electricity markets, exploring regulated and competitive models across advanced and emerging economies. Students will analyze how policy frameworks, regulatory structures, and market incentives shape investment, pricing, and dispatch decisions.

• R 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: A.J. Goulding
  Info
• 3 points

Energy Transition in Europe

This course explores the opportunities and challenges presented by Europe’s efforts to lead the global transition to net-zero greenhouse gas energy systems. Centered on the European Union and its member states, the course also considers key geopolitical developments shaping the region’s energy future, including the war in Ukraine, transatlantic relations, and trade tensions with China.

Students will examine how climate goals intersect with energy security, affordability, and political feasibility. The course covers policy design, institutional dynamics, and market responses across power generation, transportation, and industrial energy systems. Topics include energy storage, electrification, decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors, and the integration of renewables into power grids.

Through case studies and discussion, students will assess how EU energy and climate policies translate into real-economy investment and innovation. The course emphasizes critical engagement with required readings, active participation, and an understanding of the political and economic factors that shape Europe's transition agenda.

This intensive seven-week course is recommended for students already familiar with energy transition issues.

• 1.5 points

Energy Decarbonization

This course examines the pathways, technologies, and policies for transitioning energy systems from fossil fuels to low-carbon alternatives. Energy systems underpin modern economies and human well-being but remain the primary driver of climate change. The course introduces the scientific, economic, and political foundations of energy decarbonization and surveys the barriers to reducing emissions across major sectors, including power, transportation, buildings, and industry.

Students will engage with case studies, debates, and guest lectures to explore topics such as carbon pricing, innovation policy, equity considerations, and decarbonization in emerging economies. The course integrates perspectives from international climate negotiations and country-specific approaches, with a focus on U.S. policy design and implementation.

• M 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Noah Kaufman
  Info
• 1.5 points

Ocean Policy, Sustainable Development an

Sustainable Ocean Policy

Oceans are critical to life on Earth. They supply more than half of the oxygen we breathe, regulate our climate, and connect peoples and continents.

The class will provide an overview of the most contentious and vexing issues and challenges regarding the ocean that are facing policy makers in the U.S. and across the globe today, and will examine their implications for global security and sustainable development of ocean resources.

The class will discuss policy, international institutions, governance models, scientific and economic issues, and potential solutions.

• Instructor: Monica D Medina
  Info
• 3 points

The Economics of Energy

This course is an introduction to the economics of energy markets. We will study the main sources of inefficiencies in energy markets—market power and externalities—and their implications for policymaking. We will cover, for example, how oil and natural gas prices are determined globally, deregulation and market power in electricity markets, and policy responses such as carbon permit trading.

We will also discuss recent challenges faced by policymakers in energy markets, such as the incorporation of renewables, transmission, transport, and the broader energy transition to net zero.

Students will work in groups to deliver a project and presentation focusing on a real-world energy policy question of their choice. The objective of the group project is to provide hands-on experience in energy policy analysis using the main economic concepts discussed in the class.

• T 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• T 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• W 7:10 p.m.-9 p.m.
• R 8 a.m.-9:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Robert Metcalfe
  Info
• 3 points

Struggles for Sustainability: Food, Farm

How has the quest to produce enough food shaped societies, economies, and the environment in the United States and beyond? This course examines the powerful historical forces that have driven transformations in food production and policy over the past century, and how those forces continue to shape debates around sustainability, food security, and development today.

Students will explore the evolution of agricultural science and technology, the impact of government programs such as subsidies and rationing, and the ways ideas born in the U.S. have been adopted, adapted, or resisted globally. From the rise of large-scale production to the emergence of movements for organic and regenerative practices, we will trace how food systems reflect shifting values, power dynamics, and visions of progress.

This seminar invites students interested in sustainability and social change to critically engage with the past to better understand the urgent questions of the future.

• M 1:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Sara Tjossem
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainable Finance II: System-level Inv

Sust Fin II: System-Level

Today’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, social inequities, and financial instability, are complex, global, and systemic. This course explores how investors can respond through system-level investing, an emerging approach that considers the deep interconnections among financial markets, the real economy, and long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes.

Building on traditional and sustainable finance principles, system-level investing expands beyond portfolio-level risk and return analysis to address the broader systems that support market performance. Students will explore how investors can influence and manage systemic risks to improve investment outcomes and support societal resilience. Topics include foundational finance theory, tools for system-level investing, real-world case studies, and evolving practices across asset classes.

• R 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• 3 points

Sustainable Investing: Past, Present, an

Sust. Investing: Past-Fut

This course will track the history of sustainable investing from the 1970s, in order to better understand the field, what it’s been doing, and where it stands now. We will start with the emergence of sustainable investment in the 1970s as it congealed strands of community organizing, consumer society, institutional activism from community organizing, labor activism, and institutional investor assertion into a new set of specific institutions and practices; continue through the shareholder activism and professionalization of the field in the 1980s and 1990; turn to the substantial growth and mainstreaming of the field from 2000s; and finally bring our history up to the present moment of policymaking, backlash, and self-doubt in the field. We will ask questions like: what did practitioners and advocates hope to achieve by building the field of sustainable investment? What kinds of work, in what kinds of institutions, made up the field? What are the political and ideological contexts in which the field emerged, and how have they changed over time? Why did something seen as so marginal back become so much more central to how we talk about finance and financial policy now? What does this history tells us about the (potential) utility of sustainable investment?

• W 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: David C Wood
  Info
• 1.5 points

Impact Investing II: Blended Finance

Impact Investing II: Blended Finance'' equips students with a detailed understanding of the tools, strategies and innovative approaches being utilized by investors seeking both financial and impact returns, via blended finance transactions. Students in this course will study cases, dig into transactions and be prepared to be a professional contributor to a transaction at a future employer. Moreover, the course provides students with a further understanding of opportunities that blended transactions can provide impact investors as they aim to unlock capital markets' support to mitigate climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, address social inequality, reduce poverty, and generate other system-level challenges.

• R 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 1.5 points

Climate Finance, Policy, and Just Transi

Clim Fin, Policy, & Just

The field of responsible investment has grown rapidly over the last twenty years, with the climate crisis serving as the paradigmatic ESG issue for investors. In the private sector, investors pledge to decarbonize their portfolios, ask for carbon reporting to manage that task, join together to engage corporations on their transition plans. As activity has grown, questions about the effectiveness and limitations of climate finance approaches to the climate crisis have grown along with them. A narrow focus on decarbonization has begun to give way to broader considerations of the transition and the risks and opportunities it poses for affected workers and communities, on the belief that social cohesion is a precondition for successful transition. Private sector initiatives have been complemented with public policy and public investment efforts to shape environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Climate finance is in a moment of reflection, change, and doubt.

This course will survey and analyze the ways that public and private investment are being or could be directed in support of a Just Transition (i.e., a low-carbon transition that does not worsen social inequalities), and various ways to think about how effective climate finance can be. We will look at investors’ approaches to the decarbonization of the economy in political and social context, asking: how do or should investors integrate concerns for workers, communities, and environment into climate finance? what kinds of public policies are needed to ensure that investment points towards a Just Transition? The result, we hope, will lead both to a better understanding of the roles public and private investment in a Just Transition, climate policy, and an expanded critical capacity to analyze how well it’s working.

• W 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: David C Wood
  Info
• 3 points

ESG and Corporate Political Strategy

ESG and Corporate Political Strategy examines how organizations align environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities with corporate political strategies to shape policy, manage risk, and advance system-level change. As public expectations of corporate responsibility grow, firms must navigate both market and non-market arenas to sustain value, engage with stakeholders, and influence the rules by which they operate.

This course equips students with practical tools and analytical frameworks to understand and implement integrated strategies that align ESG goals with legislative, regulatory, and political engagement. Case studies and applied exercises explore how companies influence policy, respond to regulatory shifts, and act as stewards of systemic transformation. Topics include corporate lobbying, public positioning on social issues, regulatory influence, and the strategic use of litigation and partnerships.

Ideal for students pursuing careers in business, policy, nonprofit, or advocacy sectors, this course complements 
Social Impact: Business, Society, and the Natural Environment 
and is open to graduate students across SIPA, Columbia Business School, the Climate School, and other Columbia schools.

• T 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Dylan Minor
  Info
• 1.5 points

Quantitative Valuation of the Environmen

Quant Valuation of Enviro

The Quantitative Valuation of the Environment course will explore theory and methods of economically valuing environmental benefits and disbenefits, and how they can be applied in decision-making processes to improve stated outcomes. Specifically, it examines model specification for stated preference valuation, generating awareness of the theoretical and empirical questions being investigated in the area, generating awareness of environmental and resource issues currently being debated, and practical issues such as how these welfare economics measures can be used in efficiency measures such as benefit cost analysis.

• M 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Lorie Srivastava
  Info
• 3 points

Social Impact: Business, Society, and th

Social Impact:Bus,Soc,Nat

The Social Impact: Business, Society, and the Natural Environment course explores the relationship between corporations, society, and the natural environment. Specifically, it examines the ways in which governments, (for-profit and non-profit) organizations, and investors (fail to) have positive impact and manage issues where the pursuit of private goals is deemed inconsistent with the public interest.

• T 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Caroline Flammer
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability Reporting

The Sustainability Reporting course explores the ever-evolving global Sustainability and ESG reporting environment and the standards and frameworks that are being used by companies to report on their sustainability related performance. Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting (“ESG”) also referred to in parts as Corporate Responsibility /Accountability Reporting. The course explores the market drivers that generate the demand for sustainability reporting by companies, key areas of focus for investors and other capital providers, regulatory activities and the intersection of sustainability reporting with traditional corporate financial reporting.

• W 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Avner Bukspan
  Info
• 3 points

SIRI Practicum

The Sustainable Investing Research Consulting Project provides an action-based learning experience to students interested in sustainable investing, covering both sustainable investing in the financial sector (impact investing and sustainable finance) and the real economy (for-profit and non-profit organizations). For example, students will learn about the opportunities, challenges, and limitations faced by sustainable and impact investors to finance a more sustainable world. Moreover, they will learn how (for-profit and non-profit) organizations develop innovative products and services that help mitigate grand challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequality, poverty, etc., and enable them to grow their business and sustain their competitive advantage over time.

Throughout the semester, students will work on an actual sustainable investing research consulting project for a client from across the world. They will (e-)meet with the client on a regular basis, discuss their progress, obtain feedback, and present their recommendation to the client. Furthermore, students will conduct research and interviews to learn about the broader business environment and institutional context (including cultural, political, economic, and social factors) to better understand the opportunities and challenges the clients face.

This course is ideal for students interested in pursuing careers in sustainable finance, impact investing, ESG, corporate sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. 

The Sustainable Investing Research Consulting course offers consulting projects from around the world, covering a broad range of topics in sustainable investing. Clients include start-ups and established firms, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and clients from the finance and investing world. For more information on client projects and the student experiences, please see the SIRI website:
https://siri.sipa.columbia.edu/news

Registration in this course is instructor-managed. Students must join the course waitlist in Vergil during their registration appointment and submit the following application to be considered for enrollment:
https://forms.gle/XQNhfryMhGUszkZB6
.

• R 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Courtney Sara L Minard
  Info
• 3 points