

Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South
The Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South is an ambitious new initiative at the Yale School of the Environment aimed at supporting next generation leaders.
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Established with a historic gift from the Three Cairns Group, the program expands access to advanced education and training for qualified students and professionals committed to working to address climate change. The cornerstone of the newly launched Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South is Three Cairns Scholars, which is focused on Global South students who are committed to combatting climate change in their home countries and region. As Scholars, students will receive tuition and non-tuition support designed to help them succeed in YSE’s master’s degree programs and when they return home to work on climate solutions. Three Cairns Scholars will begin accepting applications on September 15, 2022, for admission to the 2023-24 academic year.
Three Cairns Fellows, another scholarship opportunity provided through the Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South, supports mid-career environmental professionals seeking to enroll in one of YSE’s online certificate programs — Financing and Deploying Clean Energy, offered by the Center for Business and Environment at Yale (CBEY), or Tropical Forest Landscapes: Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use, run by the Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI). This year, both of these high-impact certificate programs will launch their fourth cohorts with inaugural Three Cairns Fellows.
Please check back for news and updates about the Three Cairns Climate Program for the Global South at YSE as we begin our first year! We look forward to keeping you informed about the evolution of this transformational program and to introducing you to the first Three Cairns Scholars and Fellows, as well as some of the people who are working hard to make the program a success.
Three Cairns Scholars
For YSE Master's Degrees
Three Cairns Scholars enables YSE to meet 100% of the demonstrated tuition need for qualified students from the Global South admitted as master’s degree students to one of its regular degree programs. As Three Cairns Scholars, students also will have access to non-tuition resources, such as funding to support summer internships in their home countries, mentoring partnerships with YSE alumni, and career development opportunities and counseling that are designed to help ensure their success while at Yale and when they return to their home countries and regions. Three Cairns Scholars is not an independent course of study, but an enhanced scholarship opportunity designed to support the next generation of climate leaders in the Global South.
Three Cairns Fellows
For YSE Online Certificate Programs
Three Cairns Fellows allows YSE to expand access to two of its highly rated online certificate programs for mid-career environmental professionals — Financing and Deploying Clean Energy and Tropical Forest Landscapes: Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use. Respectively, these year-long certificates develop capacity for leapfrogging transitions to renewable energy and for managing the areas of highest potential for natural carbon sequestration: tropical forests. Individuals seeking scholarship support as Fellows must apply directly to the Financing and Deploying Cleaning Energy or Tropical Forest Landscape certificate programs.
Meet the Inaugural Three Cairns Fellows:
Climate Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Communicators
From advancing renewable rural electrification in South Asia, to promoting sustainable agroforestry in Tanzania, to amplifying the voices of next-generation climate leaders in Kenya, these inaugural Three Cairns Fellows are tackling climate change in their home countries and throughout the Global South.
“The sustainable energy transition [in the Global South] presents several opportunities as energy is an ideal tool to empower people. Energy insecurity and poverty are issues that could be mutually resolved in this transition, and I am eager to tackle both challenges.”
Fally Titikpina — energy project manager and data analyst, Three Cairns Fellow
Leading on Climate Change: Global South Alumni
Meet some YSE alumni from the Global South who are making an outsized impact. Through Three Cairns Scholars, YSE will be able to expand its global network of alumni with the knowledge, training, and agility to address the climate crisis and lead on solutions.
As an environmental leader from the Global South (Pakistan), I can say without hesitation that the combination of social and natural science education that I received at the Yale School of the Environment provided me with a unique foundation that has enabled me to succeed in practical conservation work.”
Contact Master’s Admissions
Introduce yourself to the YSE master’s admissions team.
