Faculty

The United States is among four nations projected to fall far short of the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target established by the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact — with over 50% of global emissions expected to come from the U.S., China, India, and Russia by 2050.

Recently elected to one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, YSE Professor Karen Seto talks about how cities can be a catalyst for generating solutions to climate change, what she is hoping to bring to the academy, and her role in developing the new Yale Center for Cities and Climate Solutions.

For Earth Day, Dean Indy Burke joined Yale University President Peter Salovey on his monthly Yale Talk podcast for a conversation covering a wide range of environmental issues.

Restoring Indigenous power in land stewardship and co-management policies were at the center of a YSE-Wyss Foundation panel discussion that brought together Indigenous voices from across the country.

Study finds that though air pollution is highly regulated in California, environmental policy as a whole is not protecting all communities in an equal way: Regulatory machinery has been preferentially protecting White, non-Hispanic people from exposure.

Providing some hope in the push for climate action, the IPCC report’s chapter on urban mitigation, led by Yale School of the Environment Professor Karen Seto, outlines how cities have an opportunity to increase resource efficiency and significantly reduce GHG emissions through smarter design and greener infrastructure.

A first of its kind study focusing on infrastructure inequality finds that infrastructure inequalities are ingrained in the urbanization process.

Emissions fluxes that contribute to the global emissions budget between terrestrial carbon cycle and carbon dioxide from water bodies vary seasonally and regionally.

The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment has helped establish the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition, an education and outreach program designed to help the region’s forest landowners build forest farming operations.

The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, gives a stark of the effects of climate change globally and is a clarion call for action. Professor Daniel Esty discusses the key messages.

Considerable research has been conducted on the growth of urban population, but very little is known about why urban land areas expand. In a recent paper, a YSE-led research team investigated the role of population and economic growth in affecting urban land expansion for more than 300 cities.

Urban land expansion of up to 1.53 million square kilometers of new land will threaten the survival of more than 800 species but a focus on urban planning that protects habitats can mitigate the impact.

With the origins of the COVID-19 spurring conversations around the consumption and trade of wild animals from the global South, Yale researchers are taking a closer look to understand the role of “bushmeat” to create a more balanced narrative.

Shifting to electric vehicles in the future will reduce emissions due to less burning of gasoline in internal combustion engines. But a significant share of this benefit will continue to be offset without complementary policies designed to lower emissions from the sources of electricity that come online to meet additional demand.

This is the first in a special series that takes an in-depth look at Yale School of the Environment’s Centers, Programs, and Initiatives. This month’s focus is on the Center for Industrial Ecology, which seeks not only to advance our understanding of the environmental impacts of production and consumption on an international scale, but also to be part of tangible