Response to Quiatchon and colleagues: Higher education institutions can accelerate climate action around the world

Our Viewpoint article, “Higher education institutions can accelerate societal climate action” (Kopp et al. 2026), emerged from a 48-state workshop on Campus and Community-Scale Climate Change Solutions (Lippel et al. 2024) with participants from 61 institutes of higher education (IHEs) in the United States. We welcome the complementary perspective from IHEs in the Philippines provided by Quiatchon and colleagues (2026). While campus sustainability efforts make significant contributions to climate change mitigation and adaptation and provide important examples for broader society, we agree wholeheartedly that higher education’s role in accelerating societal climate action should not stop there. Our institutions can also serve as living laboratories for education, research, and community engagement. Our Viewpoint gives several examples of IHEs that are working to accelerate climate action across US society through climate-focused education and workforce development programs, industry engagement, and community services. Partnering with communities, governments, and the general public to manage the real and present harms of climate change—which in the United States include extreme heat, more frequent and extensive coastal and inland flooding, intensified droughts, and heightened wildfire risk, among others—is an essential role for IHEs. As anchor institutions with deep expertise and strong local ties, universities can play a key role as providers of community-oriented climate services (Kopp 2021, Leinberger et al. 2026). Organizations like those listed in Table 1e of our Viewpoint are already playing “essential roles in developing and delivering [climate] services, coproducing research, and integrating community engagement into institutional climate action.”