Collaborating for Climate Equity

The new Climate Justice Practicum is an innovative collaboration between Vermont Law School and the Yale School of Public Health. In the course launched this fall, students attend a weekly seminar with Environmental Justice Clinic Director Marianne Engelman Lado, while also conducting applied fieldwork on the frontlines of climate justice.

Professor Marianne Engelman Lado

One student team is analyzing transportation justice issues in rural areas with the Conservation Law Foundation. A second group is working with the Connecticut Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), figuring out how to integrate questions of equity into state climate action plans. A third group is working with the nonprofit Public Justice and community-based groups, conducting a climate impact assessment of biogas from California’s industrial dairying operations and analyzing legal options.

“It is so important that we expose our students to cross-disciplinary approaches to solving environmental problems,” said Associate Dean for Environmental Programs Jenny Rushlow. “Climate justice is a complex dilemma requiring contributors from many disciplines and walks of life to work together. This new course will give our students the opportunity to practice partnering with scientific experts, as they would in many careers in the environmental field.”