Sabin Center Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Plan

The climate crisis is a crisis of unprecedented scope and scale. It arises from everywhere, and impacts everyone. But some—some countries, some companies, some communities, some individuals—are more responsible than others; and some are more impacted, and more vulnerable, than others. Climate change has made clear that diversity increases the power of potential solutions and the resilience to adverse impacts—for ecosystems, social systems, economic systems and their various hybrids and combinations. At the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law we believe that by creating and fostering a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism, we will improve the strength and resilience of the Center, as well as the students, researchers and scholars, law and policy practitioners, and maybe even the planet we seek to teach, inform, collaborate with and protect.

The Sabin Center Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (DEIA) Plan arose from within a larger assessment and planning effort at the Earth Institute that was initiated in 2019, and the imperative to consider and address DEIA issues at the Center intensified in the midst of the national reckoning with racial injustice brought about by police killings and the growth of white nationalism in Spring 2020. The Plan that follows articulates our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism among our staff, and the people, groups and partners with whom we work, as well as in the issues with which we engage. Through it, we state in the clearest of terms that we welcome, value and respect people’s differences and that we know that by inspiring, developing and accessing a broad array of perspectives, skills and ideas we can be even more effective in achieving our mission.

Read the report Sabin Center Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Plan in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.