Sixteen young climate practitioners were selected for the inaugural cohort of the Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship.

The Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship program has named its inaugural cohort of young climate practitioners. 

This eight-month program offers an opportunity for 16 young climate and clean energy practitioners from across the Global South to broaden their technical skills, deepen their professional networks, and exchange views with top global clean energy and climate change leaders.

“We are delighted to welcome such a diverse and talented group of professionals to join the initial cohort of our climate fellowship,” said Paul Simons, a retired U.S. ambassador and Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, who will coordinate the new program. 

 “We are fortunate to have attracted top talent from all the key regions of the emerging world – from Latin America to Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Southeast Asia.  By networking among themselves, and with top global experts from Yale and beyond, fellows will develop skills and contacts to advance the clean energy transition in the countries and regions that are critical to advancing our global decarbonization goals,” Simons added. 

 “I’m excited to welcome our new climate fellows to Yale,” said Jim Levinsohn, dean of the Jackson School of Global Affairs. “We will bring together a unique mix of  government leaders, engineers, renewable energy developers, climate justice advocates, and skilled analysts and modelers – some of the top climate talent in the emerging world.  This promising new climate fellows program builds on our signature World Fellows program, and strengthens Jackson’s International Leadership Center as a key focal point for tackling the toughest global challenges,” he said.  

Fellows begin the program in late November at the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, taking part in a series of interactive sessions with prominent Yale faculty and practitioners to set the terms of the global climate change debate. The program then continues with a series of remote learning sessions featuring top international experts on the full range of policy issues associated with climate change and the clean energy transition. The fellowship concludes in June with an in-person week in Paris, including meetings with top international climate change analysts. 

Learn more about the fellowship