For more than 30 years, the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) at The Fletcher School has combined rigorous research, multidisciplinary graduate education, and executive training to equip current and future policy entrepreneurs with both the knowledge to craft evidence-based policy in a global context and the skills to implement that policy.
The center’s scholarly research on today’s environmental and resource challenges provides empirical evidence for academics and policymakers. CIERP researchers analyze how economic and social activities impact the environment in service of strategies for meeting human needs without straining the planet’s resources.
Groups within CIERP contribute directly to the crafting of policy in a variety of ways. For example, the Climate Policy Lab focuses on policy for climate change, energy security, energy access, and sustainable prosperity, studying which energy and climate policies work, which don't, and why in policy contexts around the world. The Shared Waters Lab explores the complexities surrounding cooperation over freshwater resources that transect or define boundaries, with the aim to promote and encourage effective cooperative processes that are equitable and sustainable. And the Rising Power Alliances is a multiyear project that examines when and how rising powers ally with one another, the robustness of their alignments, and their impact on the United States.
Each year, many Fletcher students take international environment and resource policy courses designed to educate and train students for diverse domestic and international careers spanning both public and private sectors. In addition, CIERP offers professional training for government departments, civil society organizations, companies, and academic institutions. This gives leaders and practitioners access to new information and insights and an opportunity to develop strategies and tools specifically tailored to the challenges they face.