The need to find sustainable development strategies and effective responses to the problem of climate change, both as regards mitigation and adaptation, has led the leading universities to launch training and research initiatives with crosscutting and multidisciplinary approaches, including natural and social sciences. These initiatives are supported by the increasing demand for researchers in the field of climate change and its interface with sustainable development, particularly as regards energy, water, food security, natural resources increasing scarcity, increasing social and income inequalities, severe and extreme poverty and hunger. The current worldwide evolution of these problems shows that the demand in these areas in Portugal and in the European Union is growing.

In this context the main aim of this PhD program is to train researches in climate change and sustainable development policies so that they can contribute to identify, analyse and implement new strategies and initiatives for sustainable development in the context of the increasing risk of anthropogenic climate change during this century and forthcoming centuries.

The Doctoral Programme in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies (PhDCCSDP) is a joint initiative between the University of Lisbon and New University of Lisbon. It had its first intake in the academic year 2009-2010. It is part of an interdisciplinary network focusing on the environmental and social sciences, and works in partnership with the University of East Anglia, UK, PUC- Rio and USP in Brazil and Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), leadings international institutions in these fields. It draws on the expertise of teachers and scientific researchers from the seven faculties state in Lisbon and three foreign faculties, all of whom have acknowledged records of academic publication in the areas of climate change and sustainable development.

The Doctoral Programme is a three or four year and includes an advanced interdisciplinary training course combining the physical, natural, social and human sciences in the first and second se¬mesters. The target audience is diverse. It includes environmental, planning and energy professionals, amongst others, as well as students interested in pursuing an academic career.