Net Zero Emissions by 2050

On January 30, 2020, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger released a statement addressing the University's new commitments on climate. One of these commitments is that Columbia will achieve net zero emissions (including all Kyoto gases) by 2050, "with the hope, and expectation, of arriving at that point even earlier." 

With its first campus-wide sustainability plan released in 2017, Columbia committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 percent before 2020, a goal the University has since surpassed. Its new sustainability plan, Plan 2030 – a larger, more ambitious 10-year plan encompassing all four of Columbia’s campuses – will provide a roadmap for the University to take even more progressive, urgent action around climate change, ultimately leading to net zero emissions.