New York University (NYU) has launched the Center for Environmental & Animal Protection (CEAP), a research unit to inform policy related to these linked societal and scientific concerns.

“The nexus of animal agriculture, climate change and conservation represents one of the most pressing and least understood threats to a sustainable future and will be a main focal point of the center’s activities,” said Dale Jamieson, the center’s founding director and professor of environmental studies and philosophy at NYU.

CEAP researchers noted that the merging of these areas marks a reunion of sorts.

“As climate change has become the dominant environmental issue of our time and the animal protection movement has become more focused on animals used for food, these movements are reuniting,” Jamieson explained. “This moment calls for the creation of a formal institution that focuses on integrating environmental and animal protection.”

CEAP, which will conduct, support and distribute research, will have three primary features:

Its work will include initiating research projects, convening workshops, producing policy briefs and providing seed money for large projects, working closely with NYU’s department of environmental studies and its graduate program in animal studies.

CEAP researchers come from a broad range of fields and disciplines and will tackle topics like the climate impacts of animal agriculture, animal well-being, trade in endangered species and the environmental and animal impacts of aquaculture.