The University of Michigan is leading research, analyzing new technologies, and convening and expanding programs and partnerships around critical topics pertaining to climate and energy.
From assessing climate resilience strategies for the Great Lakes region to spearheading progress in alternative and renewable fuel sources, U-M researchers are working to elevate clean, sustainable, and equitable solutions across an array of disciplines. Some of our key initiatives in climate and energy include: the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program, the Global CO2 Initiative, and the Urban Energy Justice Lab (UEJ). Find U-M experts in sustainability and environmental science, across fields and academic units.
Private sector initiatives may be the key to spurring climate action across the political spectrum, particularly among moderates and conservatives. That finding is based on new research by Kaitlin Raimi, an assistant professor at the U-M Ford School of Public Policy, and her colleagues that has been published in Energy Research & Social Science.
The U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) announced that it received a significant philanthropic gift to establish a program that will advance socially engaged, problem-oriented research on western forests, fires, and communities.
In a finding that could help make artificial photosynthesis a practical method for producing hydrogen fuel, researchers have discovered why a water-splitting device made with cheap and abundant materials unexpectedly becomes more efficient during use.
The University of Michigan will immediately shift its natural resources investments to focus more on renewable energy, stop investing in funds primarily focused on certain fossil fuels and discontinue direct investments in publicly traded companies that are the largest contributors to greenhouse gases.
Larissa Larsen, associate professor of urban and regional planning and director of the urban and regional planning doctoral program at Taubman College, faced a skeptical audience when she started sounding the alarm on climate change and particularly the issue of extreme heat in 2000. In 2006, she co-authored an article that was the first to document that lower-income and communities of color were disproportionately impacted by the urban heat island.
The President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality at the University of Michigan has submitted its final report, which contains recommendations to help the university achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The report includes 50 recommendations that U-M could take to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions across the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.
