UC Berkeley
Climate and Society Center
The UC Berkeley Climate and Society Center (CSC) brings together faculty and students with California climate justice activists and lawmakers, to undertake critical research on specific policies that will support the state’s transition to renewable energy with zero-carbon emissions for all communities.
Mission and Vision
Sustainability, Equity and Impact
Central to the Climate and Society Center’s mission is ensuring that policy recommendations are grounded in data-based, rigorous research and are community-informed. Our vision is that research combined with political action will speed up reducing pollution and improving climate resiliency and health of Environmental Justice and Indigenous communities, along with reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Research Priorities
- Public health consequences of climate change and ways to reduce them.
- Adapting the workplace to the changing climate with the aim of ensuring worker health and safety.
- Rigorous policy analysis of climate-related policy proposals with an emphasis on distributional consequences.
- Moving towards a zero-carbon economy in an equitable fashion.
- Engaging community organizations and policy makers in designing policies that both rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve quality of life of vulnerable communities.
Read more about the CSC in a Q+A with the leadership team.
Our Team
Leadership Team
Julia Walsh
Coordinator Senior Research Scientist, Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability and Professor, Retired, Maternal and Child Health and International Health, School of Public Health
Faculty and Community Roundtables
The Climate and Society Center is developing two key initiatives: a Faculty Roundtable, which supports faculty working on climate equity projects, and a Community Roundtable, which brings together environmental justice and climate groups to collaborate with faculty on community-engaged research.
By supporting specific research projects and facilitating fieldwork with at-risk communities and climate organizations, the Center fosters meaningful engagement between faculty, student researchers, and climate justice organizations. This collaboration aims to identify research needs and integrate equity goals into research design. IRLE will work with CSC researchers to translate research findings into policy briefs, which will be distributed to policymakers, state agencies, and the public, providing evidence-based research on effective and equitable climate policies.
Additional Affiliated Faculty
Ongoing Climate Justice Projects
Ajay Pillarisetti is leading research on how air pollution, heat, and humidity affect vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, across Contra Costa County, while co-developing mitigation strategies with community members.
Carly Hyland‘s research focuses on mitigating the health effects of climate change among agricultural workers, such as vineyard workers exposed to wildfires and substantial air pollution.
Clair Brown and her student research team are building the Sustainable, Shared-Prosperity Policy Index (SSPI), which measures national policies that protect the environment and promote public goods across fifty countries.
Clair Brown and Julia Walsh are leading two student research teams to evaluate the health and economic impacts of key climate justice bills in California, including those addressing oil extraction, renewable energy, and polluter accountability.
Related Publications
In the News
Contact
For more information on how to become an affiliate faculty or community partner or if you have questions about our work, please contact community coordinator Clair Brown (cbrown@berkeley.edu) or faculty coordinator Julia Walsh (jwalsh@berkeley.edu).