About
Overview
The world is facing unprecedented challenges as it attempts to bring more than two billion people out of poverty while the richest billion consume 80 percent of global resources. Our economy is driven by renewable and non-renewable energy and material resources and is dependent upon a suitable climate, adequate water, land and forests to sustain it. Unfortunately, these essential resources and our supporting environment are being rapidly degraded and depleted.
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) at Tufts University was founded at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in 1992 to develop innovative strategies for shifting global development onto an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable path.
CIERP educates future policy and decision makers in sustainable solutions, equipping them with interdisciplinary analytical skills that can be applied directly to critical issues.
CIERP:
- Engages interdisciplinary teams of researchers, practitioners and scholars to pioneer practical policy approaches to mitigate complex economic, social and environmental problems that contribute to poverty and environmental degradation throughout the world.
- Translates theory into practice, bridging the theory that is learned in the classroom with practical experience. Center students work with practitioners in governments, corporations and civil society organizations, many of whom are graduates of the Fletcher School themselves. This provides students invaluable opportunities to connect with the real world and gain experience implementing evidence-driven strategies and policies that solve problems related to energy and climate change, forestry and water.
- Offers top-notch graduate education, combining academic rigor with an interdisciplinary faculty that includes scientists, engineers, economists, international lawyers and social scientists. Center graduates become global leaders and practitioners with a leveraged, nuanced understanding of current politics, economics, science, technology, business and law, helping them to shape international issues and events. Some Center graduates return to the Center to contribute ongoing research and to help train future practitioners, or enter academia to educate others.
- Educates the international community, publishing both scholarly and practitioner-renowned books and articles, and convening worldwide seminars, symposia and executive education opportunities.
Research and Policy Development
CIERP is working to address environmental and resource challenges in the context of sustainable development through evidence-based policies in three principle programs: Energy, Climate, and Innovation; Agriculture, Forests, and Biodiversity; and Water and Oceans. In addition, Sustainable Development Governance and Diplomacy is an area we focus on across our program areas. CIERP collaborates with multiple programs and centers, both within the Fletcher School and Tufts community and with other universities and international governmental organizations, to encourage truly interdisciplinary approaches.
In addition to conducting research, CIERP hosts workshops, conferences, and roundtables, and regularly holds consultations with policymakers and relevant stakeholders. CIERP faculty and staff endeavor to communicate all major insights and findings to appropriate policymakers through a variety of means.