Even the most stubborn optimist would concede that 2025 was a tough year for climate action. In the U.S., national climate goals were weakened or eliminated; greenhouse gas emission limits repealed; fuel-efficiency standards gutted; methane emission regulations rolled back, along with incentives for renewable energy. The result, the New York Times estimates, will be an additional 7.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade—the equivalent of putting 150 million gas-powered cars on the road for 10 years.
Yet Columbia Climate School experts see signs of progress on the horizon, and climate solutions within reach. “Even in a moment when broader policy signals can feel uncertain,” says Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson, “our students’ commitment is a powerful reminder that the momentum for climate action is alive and thriving.”
Here is what eight of our climate experts say gives them hope in the new year.
Alexis Abramson, Dean of the Columbia Climate School
I am continually inspired by our extraordinary students and the energy they bring to climate work. This year, we launched two new graduate programs—the M.S. in Climate and the M.S. in Climate Finance—and welcomed our largest cohort of students yet. Many of our students arrive with real experience in public service, community organizations, research and the private sector, and with a genuine desire to deepen the impact they’re already making. What impresses me most is how they show up every day: curious, thoughtful and determined to turn big challenges into meaningful solutions. Their dedication challenges me to expand my own vision and ambition. Seeing our students grow their skills, support one another, turn concern into capability and capability into action is what gives me hope for the year ahead.
Sandra Goldmark, Associate Dean, Office of Engagement and Impact
I studied American history and literature as an undergrad, and I love trying to understand how we got to this point. When I think about history, two ideas keep me optimistic: 1) Humanity has faced big challenges before. Imagine living in a European city during a plague year? We can get through tough times. 2) We have made significant progress on a lot of ‘wicked’ problems. Just think, only about 100 years ago, I would not even have been able to vote! While we still have a long way to go, we can make progress on climate, just as we have made progress on equality, poverty and global health.
Nature has an amazing capacity to heal—both in the long and short term. I am not a scientist, but I love being outside, and I love learning from my Climate School colleagues who study the Earth’s deep history, geology, ecology. I have learned that nature is very powerful—given half a chance, this beautiful Earth can recover. My husband and I bought a small piece of land upstate, and the first year, we had to cut down some trees, leaving a terrible raw-looking scar. It made my stomach turn to look at it. Since then, I have watched that little area regrow and bloom with plants and nesting birds and butterflies. Nature’s regenerative power is humbling and inspiring.
Michael Burger, Executive Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
What gives me hope? The passion, commitment and nonstop efforts of environmental, energy, natural resources and climate change lawyers working nationwide and across the globe to slow policy backsliding and the erosion of people’s rights, and to protect nature and planetary health.
Lisa Sachs, Director, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
What gives me hope is that [climate change] is no longer a problem of technology or knowledge—we have the tools and we know the pathways to decarbonize and protect nature. This year marked a clear shift from pledges and promises to implementation, which means the challenge is now practical and solvable, not hypothetical. The Baku to Belem Roadmap and the fourth report of the International High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance clearly emphasized the pragmatic steps needed to make transitions financeable: international coordination to tackle structural risks like cost of capital and currency exposure; technical support to support scenario planning, regulatory coherence and grid readiness; and innovative financial structuring and coordination to mitigate project-level risks including offtake guarantees [contracts where a buyer commits to purchasing a specific amount of a project’s future output, such as renewable energy, at a set price for a fixed period] and public absorption of early stage risks. With the solutions within reach, the focus can move to pragmatic, effective delivery in the year ahead.
Sheila Foster, Professor of Climate
What sustains my hope is recognizing we’ve been here before. I’ve watched climate action survive political pendulums, and each time the movement emerges more sophisticated in its strategies, policy innovation and community organizing. Many states and cities continue advancing climate action regardless of federal policy shifts. Communities aren’t waiting for Washington to chart their own futures. Subnational action can fill leadership voids, at least in the short term. I strongly believe that while the federal government can slow us down, it can’t stop the momentum of communities, cities and the next generation who refuse to accept climate injustice as inevitable.
Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
If there is a silver lining to the increase in disaster impacts we’re seeing, and the political will diminishing on climate change in some areas, it is that other civil society stakeholders are starting to step up and see that they have to be a part of the conversation, and a part of the solution. There are a lot of exciting developments in climate adaptation finance to help catalyze private sector buy-in. State and local governments are taking more of a leadership role in the U.S. and abroad. And higher education institutions like Columbia University and the Columbia Climate School are providing critical leadership in areas of education, research and translating the evidence into real solutions and real impacts.
We also see in our own classrooms an emerging generation of leaders, bringing fresh energy and fresh ideas that embrace the complexity of the challenges ahead of us and build off the evidence-base and the lessons learned up until now. We may be facing some of the greatest challenges we’ve ever faced with regard to climate change, but I am more hopeful than ever.
Radhika Iyengar, Associate Research Scholar, Center for Sustainable Development
Over the past year, I have seen how grassroots movements are coming together for democracy. I am hopeful that if there is continued injustice to the environment, we will see more such movements for the planet.
I have great faith in the women leaders who are bringing everyone together in various forms, be it in schools, churches, NGOs or in their homes. They are striving together, learning from each other and taking steps that are environmentally friendly. Cheers to those small steps and big steps taken together.
Finally, I have faith that institutions of higher education will continue to act in sync with what they teach in the classes and uphold their integrity.
Steve Cohen, Senior Vice Dean, Columbia School of Professional Studies
Attacks on environmental regulation are certainly common in the U.S. national government, but in this country, state and local environmental initiatives continue. Global corporations continue to add sustainability staff. Additionally, while some elements of the field have been under attack and have seen reductions, like ESG-branded investment funds, overall job prospects for graduate students in environmental sustainability policy and management are growing.
As the world economy is transformed, and technological change accelerates, the field of environmental sustainability will continue to grow because, at its core, sustainability policy and management are about understanding the impact of technological change on people and the planet and learning how to manage that change. In a world where renewable energy and artificial intelligence are stimulating rapid economic, cultural and political change, the employment prospects for the graduates of professionally oriented master’s programs in environmental policy and sustainability management are positive and profound. In other words, the green job boom continues and shows no signs of slowing down.
