ENV 791b () / 2024-2025

Climate Adaptation

Credits: 3 Spring 2025: M, 2:30-5:20, Kroon G01

To apply, please email Katie Mach (kmach@miami.edu), Subject: “ENV 791 Application,” by January 10 at 5:00 pm, with a paragraph expressing your interest in the course. Include your name, Yale email, school/department, degree program, and graduation year. Preference will be given to YSE students. Students will be notified of their enrollment status by 12:00 noon on January 11.

Are we prepared for climate change? As climate extremes intensify and new normals emerge, communities, governments, and businesses are adjusting and increasing resilience, to support safety, well-being, and markets. Yet these efforts are far from sufficient for the present, much less the future—and they have not benefited all people and regions equally. This course will tackle key challenges in climate adaptation. But what is adaptation? And how well are those adaptations working—and for whom? What are options and approaches for improving climate preparedness? This class will equip students to create solutions for these key adaptation themes: the intersectional complexity of climate risks and responses; risk and policy assessment, including  decision-making under deep uncertainty methods; monitoring, evaluation, and learning in adaptation; equity and justice in adaptation processes and outcomes; governance (local-to-international, across the public and private sectors and civil society); risk sharing and transfer, including insurance and systemic risks; pathways for transformational adjustments. Students will integrate theories and empirical insights across disciplines. They will explore and create adaptation solutions for the thorny real-world contexts increasingly affected by climate today.