Climate Justice Cornell

Our student-run campaigns work to promote a sustainable, just future and advance policy on climate change on the university, local and national levels. We see Cornell as a leverage point for advancing wider regional-level change. Our campaign-based organizing structure develops our members as leading social movement organizers to address the challenges of our generation.

Climate Justice Cornell, formerly KyotoNOW! was formed in student response to the US rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. After demonstrations in Day Hall, the University became the first in the country to agree to independent participation in the international Protocol, eventually signing onto the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, and finally carbon neutrality. Climate Justice Cornell’s beginning sparked a legacy of student engagement in continuing to push the University to position itself as a leader in sustainability. Climate Justice Cornell members in particular have consistently been student representatives in University- and wider community-level Sustainability task forces. Since our beginnings in climate and energy, we have also taken up other campaigns, often actively working in collaboration with other social justice groups to continue to push the University, our state, and our country towards a clean energy future.