Yale University accepts international applicants’ applications for its 2025 Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship. The Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship’s mission is to build a community of committed clean energy and climate change leaders from emerging and developing countries. The fellows will interact with top Yale faculty, researchers, and leading global authorities on the transition of clean energy from the International Energy Agency and beyond.

Sixteen young fellows from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America/the Caribbean are chosen from various career paths each year. Fellows share a desire to become future leaders in the clean energy/climate change area and share their findings and experiences with other like-minded professionals worldwide.

Yale Climate Fellows represent diversity in gender, nationality, and professional background. Public servants, entrepreneurs, energy company executives, bankers, journalists, educators, researchers, civil society members, legal advisers, and lawmakers are among the Yale Climate Fellows.

Important Information

• Organizer: Yale University
• Application Deadline:  November 8, 2024, at noon EST
• Fellowship Duration: 5 Months
• Yale Orientation Week:  April 7-11, 2025
• Paris Closing Week: September 15–19, 2025
• Remote Learning Journeys: May-July 2025
• Eligible Countries: Applicants from developing Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America/the Caribbean.
• Fellowship Cost: Free of charge

Benefits of the Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship

• Five-month tuition allowance
• Meet with prominent Yale professors and staff.
• Extensive scholarship research on clean energy and climate issues
• Fellows will network with staff from the OECD, officials from the French central government and municipalities, and representatives from civil society organizations, academia, think tanks, and the private sector.

Fellowship Components/Programs

The Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship mainly has three components as follows:

Yale Orientation Week ( April 7-11, 2025):

This five-month fellowship will begin with a one-week in-person orientation at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, from April 7 to 11, 2025.

Fellows will participate in interactive discussions with famous Yale scholars and practitioners to help define the parameters of the global climate change debate.

Fellows will learn about Yale’s many climate change efforts and delve into cutting-edge studies on various renewable energy and climate concerns.

Remote Learning Journeys (May-July 2025):

From May to early July 2025, Climate Fellows will arrange and carry out a series of interactive remote sessions with top worldwide experts on the full range of policy issues linked with climate change and the clean energy transition.

Sessions are lively experiences that allow for the formation of communities of practice in specialties as well as significant mentoring possibilities.

Possible topics of this learning journey:

• Strengthening global climate change governance, such as the UN process;
• Exploring decarbonization pathways, such as the IEA Net Zero 2050 scenario;
• Accelerating renewable electricity growth and addressing system integration challenges;
• Promoting behavioral change and energy efficiency
• Exploring the challenges of a people-centered clean energy transition.
• Studying market-based climate policy instruments such as carbon pricing
• Investigating regulatory policy measures to aid in the adoption of renewable energy solutions
• Enhancing communication on climate change
• Reducing energy access disparities with renewable energy technology
• Creating low-cost negative emissions technology, such as direct air capture
• Investigating the role of natural climate solutions
• Expanding and extending corporate and investor climate change initiatives
• Addressing energy security concerns, such as the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition
• Investigating supply chain and related geopolitical difficulties of the renewable energy transition
• Assessing problems of lowering methane emissions in emerging and underdeveloped countries

Closing Week in Paris (September 15-19, 2025):

The fellowship culminates with a week-long in-person residency in Paris from September 15-19, 2025.

Fellows will meet with prominent worldwide climate change experts, share viewpoints gained throughout the program, and solidify professional and personal contacts made through peer learning and discussion.

Fellows will network with staff from the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), officials from the French central government and municipalities, representatives from civil society organizations, academia, think tanks, and the private sector.

Fellows will also offer policy suggestions to a worldwide advisory board on specific clean energy and climate-related concerns, publish their results, and maintain contacts through an alum network.

Eligibility Criteria for Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship

All applicants should meet these requirements to apply for the Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship:

• Applicants should be between 5-10 years into their professional careers and have exhibited regional, national, or international accomplishments.
• Although there is no upper age limit, the program is searching for young leaders to help us begin the program.
• Applicants must be citizens of the Global South, including developing Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America/the Caribbean.
• Applicants must be English native speakers.
• Climate Fellows must be fully available to engage in person for the program’s first two weeks: the Yale Orientation Week and the Paris Closing Week.
• Fellows should also be available to attend the five remote learning excursions, which will take place between May and early July 2025.

Criteria for Selection

The selection committee will assess all applications against the following criteria:

• A track record of success in a field related to sustainable energy and climate change
• A diverse group of stakeholders includes government officials, entrepreneurs, energy company/utility professionals, bankers/financiers, journalists, educators/researchers, civil society leaders, legal advisers, and legislators.
• A determination to make a beneficial difference on a local, national, or international scale
• A demonstrated potential for a future career in leadership at the national and possibly global levels
• An eagerness to broaden and strengthen professional networks and get exposure to top global experts in clean energy and climate change

How to Apply for the Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship?

• The Climate Fellows Program admissions application is completed entirely online. There is no paper paperwork to fill out or mail in.
• You may work on your application at any moment before the deadline and submit it when you are finished. After making an account and going to the online application, you may submit materials and seek letters of recommendation.
• Applicants must submit a résumé/curriculum vitae (no more than three pages), one letter of recommendation, and a personal statement (no more than 600 words)
• Candidates can also submit a brief video statement.

Apply Now

Please visit the Yale University official website for further details about the Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship.

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