Gain the professional skills and hands-on experience you need to effectively confront climate change and promote sustainability.
For the program beginning fall 2025
36
Full-Time
Iceland, Tanzania
January 31, rolling thereafter until May 15
January 31, no rolling admission
1 Year
Climate & Environment
Climate change is a pressing concern at global, regional, and local scales. Based on SIT’s unique brand of place-based experiential learning, this program provides an opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, and global experience to address climate change and enhance environmental sustainability and responsible human livelihoods. By using natural and social sciences to engage with communities, environments, practices, and policies, we can limit and mitigate climate change impacts on our world. The program will prepare you to work in the fields of climate change science, policy, conservation, development, or community advocacy.
During your first semester in Iceland, meet your cohort, participate in orientation, and gain a deeper understanding of the country’s pathbreaking energy alternatives to fossil fuels. You will also explore Iceland’s methods for reducing carbon dioxide output, its core policies of environmental governance, and its changing geopolitical role as a leader in European energy innovation.
In your second semester, travel to Zanzibar, exploring the effects of climate change on tropical ecosystems, communities of the Indian Ocean, and best practices for balancing natural resources with sustainable growth. You will also interact with scientists, activists, and leaders as you learn about agriculture and aquaculture, food chains and markets, water and food security, government policies, and coastal urban planning.
Spend your final semester undertaking a professional practicum at a prominent environmental or climate change organization. This will allow you to apply what you have learned to a professional setting while gaining real-world skills for your résumé. You will also complete a capstone paper reflecting on your experience.
Created especially for mission-driven professionals who seek a comprehensive introduction to climate science (advanced knowledge of science not required), and are passionate about sustainable development, climate resilience, climate policy, ecological conservation, and resource management, the master’s in climate change and global sustainability will allow you to get the skills, expertise, and hands-on experience you need to make a difference locally or globally.
Students who have graduated with this degree have gotten jobs such as
Foreign Agricultural Service officer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
Senior campaign coordinator, Union of Concerned Scientists, Chicago, Illinois
Program coordinator for climate resiliency in central Appalachia, The Nature Conservancy, Appalachia, U.S.
Senior researcher for bio-cultural landscapes, International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples and Asociacion ANDES, Parque de la Papa, Peru
Water planner, Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore, Maryland
Consultant, Gable Associates: Energy, Environmental, and Public Utility Consulting, Boston, Massachusetts
Consultant, WASH Climate Change Policy in Latin American and Caribbean, The World Bank
Forest manager, One Tree Planted, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Media fellow (foreign/world, including climate issues), Vox.com
Visit the SIT blog to read more about SIT Graduate Institute alumni careers.
Venture to the northwestern tip of Iceland, known for its tundra climate and awe-inspiring scenery. Hike the glaciers, attend the Arctic Circle Conference, visit hydropower stations, and investigate the dramatic effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems and their communities. Students stay in a converted high school with hotel-style rooms and a dining facility.
Excursion highlights include:
Click here for a description of the SIT center in Iceland.
From your coastal base in Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, you will study Zanzibar’s Indian Ocean shoreline, work with community organizations and entrepreneurs, and apply conservation strategies to coral reefs and tropical forests in Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park and Biosphere Reserve. Students will stay in well-appointed apartments of their choice in Stone Town and have the opportunity to visit spice farms and beaches.
Excursion highlights include:
Click here for a description of the SIT center in Zanzibar.
Please note that in order to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, program excursions may occasionally vary.
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:
With SIT’s experiential curriculum, you will learn how to put theory into practice. Students will complete a degree sequence of 36 credits in one year in small personalized cohorts (fall, spring, and summer semesters).
This topical course addresses energy and climate policy in Iceland, a resource rich, well-developed, and sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic Ocean. The course examines Iceland’s energy economics and its policies related to energy and climate. Currently, the country struggles to find a balance between natural resource utilization (including alternative energy sources and energy export to mainland Europe) versus conservation, especially green energy approaches. Rapid climate change has melted ice and opened up previously sealed transportation corridors to the north that influence Iceland’s national economy and strategic geopolitical position. These factors influence Iceland’s governance, policies, and practices related to energy and climate policy.
This core course examines the political economy of sustainable development and environmental change. It both applies and critiques political-economic theories about the complex causes and outcomes of ecological degradation, including from climate change. The course reviews theoretical and historical frames of analysis to understand the relationship between political-economic systems and environments at multiple scales of geography and during key historical moments. Course content follows a periodization of the evolution of capitalism: the transition from feudalism; imperialism, mercantilism, and colonialism; modernization and industrialization; the rise of Keynesianism; post-WWII development; the consolidation of neo-liberalism; and the emergence of a sustainable development paradigm. Relations among capital, the state, labor, civil society, markets, technology, and nature are engaged in a synthetic manner.
This core course introduces the interdisciplinary science of global climate change. It reviews the fundamental physical and natural processes of the Earth’s climate in addition to the natural and anthropogenic mechanisms of recent climate change. Furthermore, the course introduces the historiography, key methods of study, modelling, and marine and terrestrial evidence for climate change. Human–climate interfaces, climate geopolitics, and key policies are discussed and connected to the practice of public science.
This methods course introduces key environmental methods for studying contemporary climate change and its environmental and, to a lesser extent, human impacts in the Arctic region. Classroom study and activities emphasize oceanic and coastal ecosystems and topics, which may include methods for characterizing the atmosphere, sea currents, sea level rise, glacial retreat and melt, erosion and sedimentation, geothermal activity, freshwater runoff, and plant and animal populations and dynamics. Impacts to human communities in Iceland are addressed and scaled. Core concepts and methods interlink with the implementation of environmental impact assessments that comply with European Union standards.
This topical course introduces environmental economics, especially as linked to climate change influences on water and food in the Zanzibar Archipelago. Content, activities, and excursions highlight the following: fresh water supply, access, and use; agriculture and aquaculture; food chains and markets; food quality and nutrition; water and food safety; food security; health and sanitation; internal and external trade; industry; consumer behavior; and government policy. Macroeconomic factors and household practices related to climate change in the islands are featured.
This course addresses climate change and sustainable livelihoods in the Indian Ocean region, including through a short practicum. The course engages with the ecosystems and stakeholders of Zanzibar and the oceanic region on three sustainability topics: energy, health and urban planning, and tourism. For instance, participants evaluate Stone Town (a World Heritage site) and how, through urban planning, the government in Zanzibar attempts to mitigate climate change-induced coastal erosion to protect its primary harbor and fishery. During the semester, students make excursions in the Zanzibar Archipelago and engage with communities, wildlife, markets, plantations, innovators, scientists and their laboratories, activists, and government offices and officials. Experiences in Zanzibar are compared against cases drawn from Seychelles, Dubai, and other Indian Ocean settings.
This topical course critically engages with natural resource management. It emphasizes the management of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their relevant ties to human communities in East Africa. The course provides historiographic and theoretical frameworks to contextualize natural resource management case studies at global, regional, country specific, and local scales.
Cases are drawn from the Zanzibar Archipelago, but also from mainland Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. Through the comparative study of management approaches to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, students learn concepts and strategies to mitigate and manage the impacts of climate change on natural resources.
This methods course introduces social science and ecological methods for studying climate change along tropical coasts. Classroom study and excursions in the Zanzibar Archipelago address coastal ecosystems and African communities. Content and activities draw on geology, oceanography, paleontology, archaeology, history, zoology, botany, anthropology, economics, and urban planning. For instance, the course explains or demonstrates methods and techniques useful in the tropics for studying evidence of climate change: coastline attrition, altered water chemistry, sea level rise, coral bleaching, diminished biodiversity, impacts on animal behavior, impoverishment of communities, and threatened cityscapes. Ancient, current, and future climate changes can be determined or predicted by synthetic, interdisciplinary analysis and interpretation.
Dominant narratives that offer climate change solutions often are centered on technical interventions that focus on the use of science, technology, markets, and legal/ regulatory mechanisms. This core course deepens and broadens the inquiry to assess the overarching impact of politics, including both domestic political processes and international diplomacy. In this pursuit, students will examine the contentious politics of environmental governance and center the role of power in both constraining and enabling opportunities for social change and, potentially, effective policy making. The course applies different political theories of power from the field of international relations to understand, through multiple perspectives, the structures and functions of global environmental governance. The course takes a historical approach to examining how legal mechanisms emerged and evolved over the last three decades to tackle global-scale environmental problems, from the creation of the UNFCCC at the Earth Summit in 1992 to the Paris Agreement of 2015. Participants consider the opportunities for social change and effective climate action in light of a shifting world order and the evolving structural and cultural elements of globalization.
In this capstone project course, students synthesize and demonstrate what they have learned during the MA program. The primary course deliverable is a research- based paper, digital portfolio, or policy-advocacy position paper that addresses a facet of climate change and global sustainability.
The program practicum uses a structured and guided practitioner inquiry process to learn from professional practice experience. Students identify, connect, analyze, and apply useful theories and concepts highlighted in their program coursework. This leads to enhanced capacity for lifelong reflection, reflective practice, and professional development. During the practicum, students intern with a climate change or related social/environmental sustainability think tank, nongovernmental organization (NGO), government agency, or other organization involved in policy/advocacy/practice work at a location of their choice. This is an in-depth, hands-on learning experience, where the student is given tasks and projects according to their knowledge, skills, and interests so as to enable the student to make professional contributions to the work of the organization as well as enabling their professional growth. A quality practicum may be conducted in most geographical locations so it involves intercultural learning and an opportunity to exercise policy advocacy–related work in distinct social, cultural, institutional, and political settings. Moreover, the practicum expands a student’s professional network and strengthens their ability to develop grounded expectations about what constitutes feasible or appropriate socio-environmental actions and advocacy strategies related to global climate change.
The capstone seminar provides an environment in which students demonstrate, assess, and synthesize previous learning as well as generating new learning. It is also an opportunity for students to improve and refine their skills in oral communication and presentation. Students will critically read and give, as well as receive, peer critique of their presentation during the seminar.
For your final semester, SIT will support you in finding an approved practicum with a climate change or environmental sustainability think tank, NGO, government agency, or other organization involved in policy and advocacy work in a global location of your choice.
This practicum experience will give you the opportunity to practice policy and advocacy work in a real-world setting, expand your professional network, and strengthen your ability to develop grounded expectations about what constitutes feasible climate change strategies. Your practicum will be completed alongside other semester coursework.
During the practicum phase, you will remain engaged with faculty and other students and receive course credit for documenting the integration of your knowledge and skills while working in a professional context.
Examples of MA Student Practicums
Examples of MA Capstone Papers
SIT has contracted a local school residence hall and temporarily reserved enough private rooms with private bathrooms to house all students. This is the easiest, most convenient and most affordable option for all SIT Graduate students in Iceland and is highly recommended.
You may choose to secure housing independently. However, housing in Iceland, and especially Ísafjörður is not only extremely expensive but difficult to secure as there are few housing options in the area, especially close to the program site, and many local students in the market. Please notify your admissions counselor prior to the program if you do not plan to stay in the residence hall, which is the default option for all students.
Our housing coordinator is able assist students in locating private housing In Zanzibar. Housing in Stone Town is fairly limited due to population density, but SIT will make every effort to locate housing that meets your preferences and is within close proximity to the SIT Program Center, the Institute of Marine Sciences, and essential amenities within Stone Town.
SIT’s Student Financial Services Office provides guidance on all aspects of funding your degree throughout the application process and during your degree program. Tuition costs vary by program and scholarships are available. See details regarding payment methods and deadlines.
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Colin Byers, a 2019 Climate Change & Global Sustainability alum, has contributed to a groundbreaking document aimed at making part of the U.S. electric grid more equitable.
As Emma Vos began to expand her understanding of global systems and their shortcomings, she built a community of like-minded peers and an academic support system that led her to pursue her MA in Climate Change and Global Sustainability.
Climate Change & Global Sustainability alum Stephanie Clement spent a year and a half writing the Human Health chapter of the Vermont Climate Assessment.
