Posted on September 26, 2008

University of Colorado Receives $1 Million to Help Developing Countries Respond to Climate Change

The University of Colorado at Boulder has announced a two-year, $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to establish a new worldwide consortium to help link decision makers in developing and industrialized countries with institutes, government agencies, and individuals in order to share knowledge related to climate change.

The Consortium for Capacity Building will be directed by Michael Glantz, head of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Center for Capacity Building, which recently lost its government funding. In addition to the colleagues from the center who will move with him to the consortium, Glantz will be joined by Roger Pielke Jr., a professor in CU-Boulder's environmental studies program and a fellow of the university's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

Some of the projects under way include the first international undergraduate conference on climate affairs to be held in Shanghai, China, in summer 2009, a newly initiated climate affairs collaboration with the Libyan government, a project focused on biofuels and food security in Ethiopia, the recent creation of an international center for coastal urban affairs at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and a K-12 education program with the Chinese ministry of education. Glantz will continue to work with various United Nations agencies on issues related to early warning systems for climate, water, and weather-related hazards.

"The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support the Consortium for Capacity Building at the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of today's leading climate change research and teaching institutions," said Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. "This single grant will equip hundreds — and eventually thousands — of scholars and practitioners with the scientific tools to understand and address the effects of the global climate crisis."