Understanding and Protecting the Planet
UC San Diego is a leading university working to understand and explain environmental change, create solutions and recommend policy.
Climate Change Research
Interdisciplinary Global Research
Our interdisciplinary approach to research nurtures a collaborative culture that advances the frontiers of knowledge, shapes new fields and disseminates discoveries that transform our understanding of people and the planet.
Climate change research
Academic Rigor
At UC San Diego, we aren’t afraid to take on complex challenges like climate change. Our academic programs are taught by world-leading experts who prepare students to lead the way forward.
Climate change academic programsGlobal Leaders In Climate Change Research, Action And Academics
UC San Diego’s long-term commitment to climate change research dates to 1957 when oceanographer Roger Revelle first introduced the scientific hypothesis that humanity’s use of fossil fuels causes significant environmental changes. Since then, we’ve led the world’s climate change research in many areas, including founding the Keeling Curve and contributions to Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate reports. In addition, we've supported the transformational understanding of climate change's effects on our oceans, atmosphere, polar regions, societies, energy systems, food production, etc.
Today, our commitment is stronger than ever as we face compounding, urgent needs for climate change science and solutions. As a foundational aspect of our strategic plan, researchers and students across campus work together to understand and protect the planet.
Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Themes
UC San Diego nurtures and supports a collaborative and interdisciplinary research culture that advances the frontiers of climate science knowledge and develops mitigation strategies informed by broad academic disciplines.
Climate Science and Impacts
Understanding the physical, dynamic and chemical interactions of climate change to predict humanity’s ongoing impact.
Adaptation and Solutions
Supporting positive response to climate change impacts through green industry ingenuity and social engagement.
Policy
Evaluating and recommending economic and governmental policy models on local, regional, national and global scales.
Climate Justice
Seeking to understand the ethics of climate change and mitigate impacts on vulnerable and Indigenous populations.
Summer Heat Wave Experts
Extreme heat is rising at an unprecedented pace. UC San Diego faculty are leading experts on climate trends; the impact of heatwaves on the workforce, public health and society; and mitigations.
UC San Diego’s History Of Climate Research
In the 1950s, Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers helped sound the alarm that human activities create fundamental changes in nature.
A Legacy of Sustainability
Sustainability is part of our institutional DNA, and we’ve become one of the nation’s most sustainable universities.
A Strategic Vision
Identified as a multidisciplinary area in which our campus has deep and broad expertise, Understanding and Protecting the Planet is one of the university’s grand research themes. We aim to communicate environmental change, create economically viable solutions that enhance society's resilience and recommend necessary policy changes.
Featured Research Centers and Initiatives
Deep Decarbonization Initiative
The mission of the UC San Diego Deep Decarbonization Initiative is to help understand and guide the global economy as it moves toward net-zero carbon emissions.
Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation
The Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (CCCIA) aims to build a more resilient future through the advancement of climate science, academic-community partnerships and adaptation strategies.
Climate Action Lab
The Climate Action Lab's mission is to reduce global heating by changing human behavior. We are social scientists—economists, psychologists, urban planners, political scientists, anthropologists, etc.
Climate News at UC San Diego