Climate, Energy, and Development: Global Perspectives in Practice

Undergraduate / Graduate

This three-week intensive course takes students to West Texas, New York, and India to examine how communities, investors, and governments navigate the tensions between energy access, economic development, and climate goals. By engaging directly with oil field operators, capital allocators, grid regulators, policymakers, and rural communities facing energy poverty, students gain a 360-degree view of the climate and growth challenge, from the wellhead to the trading floor to the rural villages where the consequences of energy decisions are felt most acutely. The course is built around experiential learning. Site visits are not supplementary to instruction; they are the instruction. Each excursion is the equivalent of a classroom session, and the conversations and observations that take place on-site are the primary texts of the course. Students complete written assignments at each stop, including group presentations, policy memos, and a field journal documenting their observations across all three locations.