5 Courses Required

Additional Details

Target Audience

  • Sustainability and ESG professionals seeking stronger climate science fluency
  • Policy advisors, nonprofit leaders, and public sector managers working on climate initiatives
  • Corporate executives and consultants addressing climate risk and transition planning
  • Communications professionals, educators, and journalists covering climate topics
  • Investment and finance professionals evaluating climate-related opportunities and risks
  • Real estate developers, urban planners, and infrastructure leaders integrating climate adaptation
  • Energy sector professionals navigating renewable transitions and system change
  • Insurance and risk management professionals assessing climate-related exposures

Accreditation

  • Climate Science and Energy Solutions Certificate from Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)

Certificate Description

Climate change is one of the most complex challenges facing society today, impacting science, energy, economics, policy, and public decision making. In this certificate program, you will begin by evaluating the evidence behind Earth’s changing climate, including the forces that stabilize and disrupt the climate system, the role of carbon and associated downstream impacts, and the ways scientific consensus is established, challenged, and misrepresented in public discourse. From there, you’ll navigate the uncertainty inherent to climate projections when they are adapted regionally. You’ll then examine how climate science, economic reasoning, and international cooperation interact to guide assessment, mitigation, and coordinated decision making for addressing climate challenges.

As the program progresses, you will examine the evolution of energy systems, the challenges of designing energy transitions at scale, and the ways personal, corporate, municipal, and policy-level efforts can mobilize collective climate impact. Across the five courses, this program emphasizes systems thinking, critical evaluation of evidence, and the practical connections among climate science, energy transition, governance, and implementation. By the end of this program, you’ll be able to interpret climate information more confidently, assess climate and energy solutions more critically, and understand how informed, coordinated efforts can support a more resilient and sustainable future.

Required fields are indicated by .