The 2035 Initiative at UC Santa Barbara is a cutting-edge “think-and-do” tank that brings together world-leading environmental policy research labs to develop actionable roadmaps for slashing climate pollution and ushering in a more equitable, resilient future. We use empirical research, policy development, and media engagement to support transformational policy change in the United States and across the planet.
Report: The Clean Heat Climate Opportunity
Grid Resilience for Vulnerable Communities
Collaborative Levers for Methane Abatement
Global Climate Opinion Mapping
Our research has four core aims:
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Develop roadmaps for federal climate investments
We are creating empirically grounded roadmaps to support federal climate policymaking.
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Evaluate the impact of federal climate investments
We are researching how clean technologies are being deployed across the US.
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Create state-level climate policy roadmaps
We are creating roadmaps to inform state-level climate policymaking opportunities.
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Build global climate data infrastructure
We are developing data-driven tools for global climate philanthropies, policymakers, and the media.
Featured News and Events
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UCSB professor tapped to co-author the seventh IPCC assessment report on climate change mitigation
Professor Eric Masanet will return to contribute to the report’s chapter on demands and services
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Leah Stokes Receives 2025 Energy Thought Leadership Award from the American Energy Society
Each year, the American Energy Society (AES) highlights “the most extraordinary contributions to energy and sustainability” in a variety of categories: people, STEM, markets and innovations, media, the arts, and more. This year, they recognized Leah Stokes with an Energy Thought Leader: Higher Education award.
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Near-term Strategies for Unlocking Industrial Electrification
Dr. Eric Masanet and Dr. Leah Stokes will be joined by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Senator Martin Heinrich (NM) for a deep dive into one of the most immediate, practical opportunities to cut industrial climate pollution in the U.S. — electrifying low- and medium-temperature process heat used in manufacturing.
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Data-Driven Strategies to Accelerate U.S. Coal Plant Retirement
In this webinar, Dr. Grace Wu, Sidney Gathrid, and Dr. Ranjit Deshmukh will present exciting new research on how we can use retirement frameworks to develop targeted strategies to accelerate coal plant retirements.
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How to retire coal, smarter and faster
New UCSB study offers data-driven strategies for shuttering America’s remaining coal plants
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What are climate tipping points? They sound scary, especially for ice sheets and oceans, but there’s still room for optimism
In a new publication in The Conversation, Alex Phillips explains what is at stake with climate tipping points and why there is still an opportunity for preventive actions.
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Island communities press for “all hands on deck” response to climate crisis
A new, first-of-its-kind survey sheds light on public opinion about climate change in the world’s small island states
The 2035 Initiative is a collaboration between world-leading environmental policy and politics research labs at the University of California Santa Barbara. We are a project of the UCSB Division of Social Sciences, and affiliated with the UCSB Institute for Energy Efficiency.
Learn more about what we do and who we are.