Creating climate solutions requires connections, partnerships and cross-disciplinary approaches. At CU Boulder, we lead across all fields of climate research: adaptation and innovation, policy, natural hazards, human impacts, and climate science.Stay up to date on our groundbreaking research and technological advancements.

Coronado National Forest

Indigenous fire management buffered climate impacts for centuries

Dec. 12, 2022

CIRES co-authored work shows tribal practices blunted wildfires’ impacts in the American Southwest. Bringing “good fire” back to the U.S. and other wildfire-prone areas, as Native Americans once did, could potentially blunt the role of climate in triggering today’s wildfires.

Plastic bag on green grass

Rethinking plastic

Dec. 12, 2022

Of all the troubles in the world, why should single-use shopping bags and straws concern you? Ask Associate Professor Phaedra Pezzullo, who spells out the chilling ramifications of plastic use in her new podcast and book.

CMCI instructor and student work at a computer in the classroom

CMCI faculty, students on a mission for change

Dec. 9, 2022

The College of Media, Communication and Information received a $25,000 donation from the climate-action organization Mission Zero to further climate-focused work. Faculty and students undertook seven grant projects, tackling climate issues through innovative storytelling.

Floods that cuts the Raya Bintara Rd. in Jawa Barat, Indonesia on Jan. 1, 2020

Human-caused global warming, natural climate variability in vicious cycle

Dec. 9, 2022

Extreme weather and ocean events are on the rise around the world, due largely to human-caused climate change. But to fully understand these changes—and, ideally, to predict when and where they may occur in the future—researchers and policymakers must also take into account naturally occurring climate variability, suggests new research.

Distinguished CU Professor James S. Anaya addresses the audience during the closing ceremony

Vetting of human rights commitments next step in global climate summit

Dec. 5, 2022

After three days of dynamic and thought-provoking panels and keynotes at the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit co-hosted by United Nations Human Rights and CU Boulder, the work now begins on moving the talk about the human rights crisis that climate change is to action.

Panelist Ewi Stephanie Lamma addresses the audience during the Developing Climate Solutions with the Human Rights of Future Generations in Mind panel in the Glenn Miller Ballroom as part of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit at the University of Colorado Boulder. (Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)

Youth, women at center of climate change fight

Dec. 4, 2022

Four panelists at the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit, all young women, expressed the same sentiment: Women and youth are most burdened by climate change, but they are also key to solutions needed now.

Audience members listen to keynote speaker Kumi Naidoo as he provides the keynote speech on the third day of the Right Here Right Now Climate Summit at the Glenn Miller Ballroom in the University Memorial Center on the CU Boulder campus on Dec. 4, 2022. Photo by Patrick Campbell/University of Colorado)

4 key ways to address the climate crisis now

Dec. 4, 2022

Day three of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate summit at CU Boulder was filled with discussions of concrete solutions and urgent calls for collective action to reduce the human toll of the climate crisis today and fend off a catastrophic future.

Kumi Naidoo, South African-born human rights and climate activist, provides the keynote speech on the third day of the Right Here Right Now Climate Summit at the Glenn Miller Ballroom in the University Memorial Center on the CU Boulder campus on Dec. 4, 2022.   Photo by  Patrick Campbell/University of Colorado)

Kumi Naidoo resists ‘climate apartheid,’ calls for more voices, joy to address climate change

Dec. 4, 2022

During a presentation that conjured reflections from Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Matt Damon, Cree elders, and the late South African rapper Riky Rick, Naidoo called for a new kind of collective action to push back on what he calls “climate apartheid”—one that includes more voices, communicates more clearly and even incorporates a little joy.

Caitlyn Kim, CPR Washington, D.C.-based public affairs reporter, left, introduces the members of panel 4 of the Engage Locally series: Achieving Effective Climate Policy: How Do We Bridge the Political Divide?on the second day of the Right Here Right Now Climate Summit at the auditorium of the CASE building on the CU Boulder campus on Dec. 3, 2022.  From second from left: Joe Neguse, US Congressman, Jameka Hodnett, Green for All campaign director, Dream.org; and Chris Barnard, national policy director, Amer

3 ways to hold government, industry accountable for addressing climate change

Dec. 3, 2022

After an at-times emotional first day of the summit Friday, in which panelists from around the globe made the undeniable case that climate change is a humanitarian crisis, speakers on Day 2 focused on accountability, called for action and suggested that a human rights framing is precisely what’s needed to spark action.

Youth activists with Mary Robinson

Women need to lead next phase of climate justice movement, Mary Robinson says

Dec. 3, 2022

On the second day of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit, keynote speaker and former Irish President Mary Robinson took the stage to get people riled up and excited about making change on the climate change front through women-led efforts, such as Project Dandelion.

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