Climate change solutions

Undergraduate Certificate
Online
delivery
$409 Based on current tuition rates. No additional charge for nonresident students. Does not include course materials and associated fees and expenses.
per credit
4
start terms/year

Building a career that tackles climate change starts with a comprehensive understanding of the physical and social sciences that drive its acceleration. When you earn an Undergraduate Certificate in Climate Change Solutions online from Oregon State University, you’ll study climate change from a scientific and human perspective — learning not only the mechanisms of climate change, but also how human behavior and institutions influence and are influenced by climate issues.

Geared toward developing actionable solutions, this program emphasizes climate justice and will help you better understand how certain communities are disproportionately impacted by our changing climate. You’ll learn concrete strategies and skills to improve the resilience of natural and human systems and be better able to advocate for more equitable solutions.

Skills you’ll gain in OSU’s online climate change solutions certificate program

As a student in Oregon State’s online climate change solutions certificate program, you’ll gain the in-demand skills you need to stand out in the job market and level up your career. You’ll learn from expert Oregon State faculty who have real-world experience in the field.

  • Climate science
  • Data analysis and modeling
  • Impact assessment
  • Mitigation strategies
  • Conflict resolution
  • Climate justice

Program details

This certificate program will deepen your understanding of climate change and its scientific, ecological and societal impacts. In addition to studying the physical and social sciences behind climate change, you can take courses in related fields like anthropology, economics, political science and sustainability.

The online climate change solutions certificate program is offered by Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

Certificate requirements

A total of 27 quarter credits are required to earn your climate change solutions certificate online. Curriculum details and certificate requirements are available on Oregon State’s academic catalog.

Additional program features

As part of this certificate, you’ll complete a project-based internship related to climate change. You can complete this internship as part of your existing job or as a separate experience in person or virtually. Once enrolled in the program, your experiential learning coordinator will assist you with finding opportunities that best align with your goals.

State of Colorado: This program requires an internship. Although Oregon State University participates in the National Council of State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (NC-SARA), due to Colorado’s Workers’ Compensation Act, we have limited authorization to offer programs that require internships in the state of Colorado. The Colorado internship site must provide workers’ compensation. In some cases, a proposed internship site may not provide workers’ compensation insurance and, as a result, is not available as an internship site. Please contact Shannon Riggs, associate vice provost for educational programs and learning innovation, with questions.

Depending on your educational background, you may need to complete additional coursework prior to enrolling in this program and taking the required certificate courses. We recommend that you evaluate this prior to applying for admission.

Once you complete the undergraduate certificate in climate change solutions, you can apply the credits you earn directly toward an Oregon State bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences or natural resources.

If you plan to apply these credits toward a full degree, we encourage you to first contact the certificate program to learn about the degree requirements. Please note that acceptance into a certificate program does not guarantee acceptance into a full degree program.

You can gain highly specialized skills that are in demand by employers — and do it with less of a time and financial commitment — when you earn a microcredential online from Oregon State. Choose from a large and growing collection of these short-form offerings that can help you upskill quickly.