Celebrating a Rich History of
CLIMATE CHANGE EXPERTISE
In June of 1988, climate change became big news when the then director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen, testified before the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that global warming was affecting the earth’s climate. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was also established in 1988 and was charged with the task of preparing a comprehensive review of the science and impacts of climate change.
By Kathrin Havrilla-Sanchez
Illustration by Mario Wagner
One year earlier, SIPA created its first environmental concentration aimed at giving policy students a foundation in environmental science to better inform their work in this newly burgeoning regulatory field. SIPA, it seems, was ahead of the pack in its understanding of and dedication to climate change policy— a trend that continues to this day.
‘A SCIENCE CURRICULUM FOR POLICY PEOPLE’
Columbia’s first full program dedicated to the intersection of policy and the environment was the Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy (MPA-ESP) degree, which seeks to prepare students to become sustainability professionals in government, business, and the nonprofit sector. Initially funded by the Earth Institute, the program was started in 2002 under the advisement of
Steven Cohen, professor in the practice of public affairs, director for the Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at the Earth Institute, and director of the MPA-ESP program. “The program came out of my experience working with the Environmental Protection Agency in the late ’70s,” Cohen says. “I realized that the people making policy had very little environmental science background and the people doing the science didn’t really know how the policy worked. We needed to bridge that gap with a science curriculum for policy people.” The concentrated program is packed into a cohort experience of three semesters, with core courses on topics including management, economics, and statistics— all with a sustainability focus— taught alongside more-scientific courses in environmental chemistry, hydrology, climate change, toxicology, and more.
SIPA MAGAZINE 2021
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