Yale’s International Leadership Center, part of the Jackson School of Global Affairs, has named its 2025 cohort of Emerging Climate Leaders.

“We’re delighted to welcome a talented group of rising climate leaders to Yale,” said Paul Simons, a retired U.S. ambassador and the program’s founding director.

“With this third cohort of the Fellowship, we look forward to growing our global community of leaders working on the frontlines of pressing climate challenges. By bringing in top practitioners from across the emerging world— working across government, the private sector, and civil society— we aim to foster collaboration, spark innovation and create lifelong partnerships that help to bend downward the global emissions curve.”

The five-month program offers an opportunity for 16 emerging climate and clean energy practitioners from across the developing and emerging world to strengthen their leadership skills, broaden technical proficiencies, deepen professional networks, and explore policy solutions with top global clean energy and climate change leaders.

“These Fellows have demonstrated considerable impact – and hold extraordinary potential ” said Emma Sky, director of the International Leadership Center. “They include a trailblazing Saudi female engineer advancing the country’s circular economy agenda, a Nigerian fashion executive driving sustainability in the sector, and the CEO of a major Thai renewables firm. We look forward to helping them exchange ideas and collaborate in seeding and scaling climate solutions” said Sky.

Fellows begin the program in April at the Yale campus in New Haven, taking part in a series of interactive sessions with prominent faculty and practitioners active in advancing climate initiatives that form the heart of Yale’s innovative Planetary Solutions program. The fellowship then continues with a series of remote learning sessions featuring top international experts on the full range of policy issues associated with climate change and the clean energy transition. The program concludes in September with an in-person week in Paris, including dialogues with top international energy and climate change leaders.

For more information about the fellowship, go to climatefellows.yale.edu