Climate change is affecting the lives of college students and other young people in many ways, most directly in the form of eco-anxiety and concerns about the future. A 2025 survey from Sacred Heart University found that nearly two in three (63 percent) young people aged 15 to 29 say their daily lives are impacted by the psychological distress they experience over climate change.

At the same time, students have more opportunities than ever to prepare for green and sustainability-focused careers. An analysis of data on LinkedIn found that demand for green talent grew 11.6 percent from 2023 to 2024, signaling a booming industry as employers consider the role of sustainability in their industries. The surge was tied, in part, to investments in the Inflation Reduction Act to combat climate change, which have since been rolled back by the Trump administration.

A recent webinar hosted by the City University of New York Industry Support Hub gathered faculty experts from a variety of institutions and academic disciplines to discuss how they are preparing students for jobs of the future with a focus on climate justice.

Skilling up: While climate science is typically considered part of the STEM field, interdisciplinary skills are critical for students looking to enter green careers, faculty said.

Kyle McDonald, director of the sustainability in the urban environment graduate program at City College, spoke about a group capstone project he assigns, which pushes students to engage with experts of all backgrounds.

“They learn some of those skills that are necessary to be able to network, not only within your own discipline, but across disciplines, to be able to speak the language of multiple communities and to take your ideas and cast them in a context that can be understood by those communities,” McDonald said. Such skills serve them beyond academe, as climate concerns have applications in a variety of fields and communities.

“We need to, as researchers and educators, better articulate our process to sort of help us move forward [in addressing climate change],” said William Solecki, professor of geography at Hunter College.

Faculty can help make this connection for students while they’re completing undergraduate courses that may not seem applicable to their major, Solecki added.

“Those courses really help layer a great foundation for whatever direction you might want to go into,” Solecki said. “Having that background is something that is so fundamental in the environmental field.”

In addition to technical skills, students need durable skills to help them thrive in the workplace, including professionalism, enthusiasm for their work, creative problem-solving and punctuality, faculty said.

Undergraduate research offers another opportunity for students to engage in work-based learning and create a mentoring relationship with their professors, said Dawn Roberts-Semple, an associate professor at York College. “Research is indispensable—just getting close to a faculty mentor who can help them in their area of interest, in the laboratory, in the field,” Roberts-Semple said. “It’s important to gain those skills, because they’re exposed to real problems, so that when they’re employed, they know how to apply them.”

Hands-on work: CUNY has a variety of experiential learning partnerships in New York City that help translate climate research into insights for students and community members and make them aware of the issues impacting their city.

One example is the New York City Climate Justice Hub, which invites community members to set research agendas that would best serve their neighborhoods, such as investigating urban heat or improving sustainable transportation options, said Michael Menser, an associate professor of philosophy and urban sustainability at Brooklyn College.

To teach students these principles, McDonald utilizes white papers written by NASA’s NISAR research team and instructs students to make the data understandable to their audience.

“I try to get them to put in a little project, the data sets in contexts that are socially relevant, like how can you use NISAR to look at hazards and flooding and things that affect people’s lives?” McDonald said. “We broadcast them around campus on the monitors we have.”

The system also offers training for community members to engage in climate action themselves. Kingsborough Community College conducts free training programs in renewable energy and sustainable technology for environmental justice and disadvantaged communities, said Robert Zandi, associate director of renewable energy programs at KCC. Students enrolled in these programs receive wraparound supports, career navigation support and Metro cards to boost their success, Zandi said.

“What I would like to see down the road, in the future, is definitely more collaboration and centralization of the offerings within CUNY,” Zandi said, hinting at a green consortium within the system that would create a one-stop shop of CUNY’s programs.

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This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Michael Menser’s name.