Every few weeks, we open our virtual doors and get to meet—often for the very first time—the people who go on to become champions of climate work. We see familiar faces from our community, but mostly, we meet you: the professionals, the parents, the creatives, and the engineers who are ready to do more.
We hear your trepidation. We hear your excitement. And most importantly, we hear your questions.
We love it when you ask the tough questions. We believe that tough problems—like the climate crisis—require tough questions and honest answers. There is no point in sugar-coating the work ahead; we are here to prepare you for it.
This week, we met over a hundred of you from all walks of life. You met our founder, Anshuman Bapna, and two of our incredible alumni, Kerri Barnes (who took her SaaS skills into climate partnerships) and Nihal Shetty (who pivoted from commodities trading to Climate VC).
The conversation was unscripted, raw, and incredibly insightful. If you missed it, here are the highlights of the questions you asked—and the answers we gave.
Meet the Uakaris
But before we dive into your questions, we have a bit of a tradition. We name every cohort after an endangered species. It is a quiet, constant reminder of who we are fighting for—not just for ourselves, but for the intricate web of life that sustains us.
The upcoming January 26th cohort will be the Uakaris.
Deep in the Amazonian flooded forests live the Red and Bald Uakaris. With their striking red faces and specialized reliance on "whitewater" forests, they are as unique as they are vulnerable. Because they reproduce slowly—mothers have only one infant every few years—their populations are fragile.
Today, they face a shrinking world. Habitat loss from logging and agriculture, combined with hunting, has pushed them onto the Vulnerable and Threatened lists. They are sensitive to human impact, but they are also resilient when protected.
When you join this cohort, you take on their name. You join a legacy of protection, mirroring the efforts of organizations like the WWF and the guardians of the Lago Preto preserve. You become part of the shield that protects the vulnerable.
Q: Is LFA possible to do next to a master's degree in something else?
A: Yes, completing the LFA fellowship alongside other major commitments, like a master’s degree or a full-time job, is certainly possible. The total time commitment is structured to be manageable, generally requiring 6 to 10 hours per week, with the suggestion to aim for about an hour a day.
For those intending to pursue a climate-related master's degree later, LFA functions effectively as a "boot camp". LFA's curriculum, which has been designed by experts who have taught at places like Oxford and Berkeley, provides foundational climate knowledge, is structured, rigorous, and outcome-oriented. Fellows who subsequently pursued master’s degrees reported that they were able to be significantly more focused in their academic pursuits because the LFA program had already helped them clarify their goals and interests.
Q: Could you please let us know a little bit more about the live lab group sessions?
A: The live lab sessions are a critical interactive component designed to prevent the isolation and low completion rates often associated with purely asynchronous programs.
• Logistics: These are mandatory, instructor-led sessions held weekly for 90 minutes. Cohorts are divided into smaller lab groups, typically comprising 20 to 25 people. Due to the global participant base, fellows are offered six to seven time options for their lab sessions to suit their schedules.
• Content and Vibe: The time is generally split into two parts. The first half is often a workshop designed to bring the weekly content alive, such as using the En-ROADS simulation tool (a climate policy simulator built by MIT) to understand the nuance of various climate policy levers. The second half acts as a safe, fluid "study group" focused on peer-to-peer and one-on-one learning.
• Value: Alums consistently highlight the labs as their favorite part of the program, providing them with diverse perspectives that helped compound the knowledge acquired from the asynchronous material. The collaborative environment, which includes energetic discussions and action-oriented group activities, was praised for being inclusive and generative, allowing participants to examine global challenges with local lenses.
Q: I'm a software engineer. Should I go back to school for a climate master's to learn more fundamentals, or just apply my existing skill set to a role in climate change?
A: Professionals with established technical skills, such as software engineering, are strongly encouraged to prioritize applying their existing expertise to the climate sector. The sector is growing rapidly and requires as many talented people as possible, and much of the climate-specific knowledge can be effectively learned on the job.
The LFA fellowship was specifically created to function as a "compressed masters program". This model acknowledges that typical academic programs can be "out of touch with how fast-paced climate work is," given the rapid velocity of changes in the field. LFA is designed to be more practitioner-focused, outcomes-oriented, and networking-critical, accelerating the time required for professionals to get "deployed in climate".
Q: For folks who already have senior experience/established domain expertise, where have you seen LFA add the most incremental value?
A: The LFA provides significant incremental value for senior professionals in two primary ways:
Strategic Focus and Reframing: It helps senior individuals step back and build their point of view on which sector in the climate economy they want to apply their deep domain expertise to. Fellows often shift their sectoral focus; for example, while many enter the program interested in popular topics like carbon offsets, they frequently exit with a primary focus on food systems, recognizing it as a large source of emissions that is currently underserved by capital and talent.
The Network: The program provides an "incredible" and highly diverse network. Cohorts have included influential figures such as philanthropic billionaires, Denmark's educational minister, well-known VCs, and industry leaders, alongside professionals like farmers, high school teachers, policy makers, and journalists. This composition ensures that members can learn both "upwards and downwards" from people at all stages of their climate journey.
Q: How do you support learners to move from individual skill building into systems level climate action, especially in emerging markets like Africa?
A: The curriculum is explicitly structured to guide fellows away from an individual skill focus toward systemic thinking. The course follows a distinct emotional arc:
• The Trough: It begins with rigorous climate science and impacts, leading to an emotional low point or "trough" as fellows absorb the gravity of the climate crisis.
• Systemic Realization: This process forces the realization that the problem is too large to be solved by individual skill acquisition alone.
• Solutions Focus: The curriculum then shifts its focus to human systems, policy levers, economics, and systems thinking. This phase helps fellows understand the systemic changes necessary for solutions, such as the design of renewable energy grids or large-scale changes in food systems, providing a framework for solutions that require action at the root cause level.
Still have questions?
We’ve answered hundreds of questions over the years. If you’re still wondering about the "nitty-gritty," check out our Deep Dive FAQ post here, where we cover:
Climate Anxiety: How this course turns your anxiety into a fuel for action.
The Instructors: Who exactly is teaching you? (Spoiler: It’s experts who are also mentors).
How does LFA help me work in climate? Can I find a job in climate?
The Structure: A detailed look at what a typical week looks like.
Ready to find your own answers?
The questions you ask today will shape the climate solutions you build tomorrow. Don’t let your questions remain hypothetical. Come find the answers with us.