Students walking towards a glass building with redwood trees surrounding it.

Climate leadership

UC is leading the way to a livable future for California and the world.

Innovation happens here

Clean energy breakthroughs. Public health insights. Nature-based strategies for resilience. Across UC, great minds are tackling climate change from every angle and advancing the scalable solutions that California needs to weather the storm.

13 UC climate solutions

Two people walking through a solar-powered building
#1 U.S. university for green power
427 LEED green building certifications
244% increase in renewable energy use since 2016

Building a fossil-free UC

We’ve cut our carbon footprint by 25 percent since 2009. We’re on track to purchase 100 percent clean electricity at all our campuses by 2025. Now we’re charting an ambitious course to eliminate carbon emissions from all our campuses and locations by 2045.

Track our progress

Building a resilient California

Peter Nelson (Coast Miwok and tribal citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria) is a UC Berkeley professor studying Indigenous leadership in wildfire management. His project is one of 38 funded by the California Climate Action Grants program, a $185 million partnership between UC and the State. Researchers are tackling water, health, biodiversity, sea level rise, clean energy and disaster response. And they’re teaming up with experts from communities on the front lines of climate change to design solutions that will protect people’s health, homes and livelihoods.

See research in action

Person holding up a large poster of the state of California in the middle of a forest.
Photo of Hope Hendry
“I’ve decided no matter how painful or traumatizing it is to witness what is happening on this planet, I have a duty to stand by and to fight for as long as I possibly can for my fellow earthlings.”

Hope Gale-Hendry
President of Cal Forestry Club and UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources Class of 2022

One woman putting on a wet suit with a woman behind her helping her zip up the back.

Educating the next generation of climate leaders

Today’s students have never known a world without climate change. At UC, they’re connecting with like-minded peers and expert faculty to turn climate anxiety into climate action.

Person in scrubs using a hydrogen fuel pump to fuel a car.

Bringing renewable, clean hydrogen to California

Hydrogen technology will cut pollution, lower rates of respiratory illness and prevent premature deaths. UC is helping bring $1.2 billion in federal funding to build a statewide renewable hydrogen industry from the ground up.

Plug into California’s hydrogen hub

Climate change is a global emergency

From wildfires and droughts to flooding and more, UC is tacking climate change head on.

Sign the UCAN pledge