Noel Healy

Noel Healy is a Full Professor of Geography and Sustainability at Salem State University, a contributing author to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6/WGIII), and a Research Fellow at the Global Center for Climate Justice. His research examines fossil fuel industry obstruction of climate action, corporate capture of regulatory institutions, and the political ecology of energy transitions and decarbonization policy. He directs the Climate Justice and Just Transformations Lab at Salem State University.

His research appears in One Earth, Energy Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, Climatic Change, and WIREs Climate Change, and has been previewed in Joule. He has written for The Guardian and Scientific American, and his work has been covered by the Financial Times, The Guardian, and Colombian national radio W Radio. He has delivered invited talks at the University of Oxford, MIT, the University of Miami, and Tufts University, including the 2024 Oxford Union address "International Climate Policy is Neo-Imperialist." He is principal investigator (P.I) on four consecutive Climate Social Science Network research grants (Brown University, 2022–2025).

Healy received his PhD from the University of Galway, Ireland, and studied at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley as a visiting graduate student. He is a former Rachel Carson Fellow at LMU Munich and a visiting professor at EAFIT University in Colombia. He has provided expert testimony on two Witness for Peace delegations regarding the displacement of Indigenous Wayúu and Afro-Colombian communities by open-pit coal mining in La Guajira, Colombia. He serves on the editorial board of Energy Research & Social Science and the advisory board of Cell Reports: Sustainability. He founded the Salem State University Fossil Fuel Divestment campaign and the SSU Faculty for Divestment group; the four-year campaign led Salem State to commit to fossil fuel divestment in 2016. His subsequent work with the Multi-School Fossil Fuel Divestment Fund raised $57,000 to endow two student scholarships at Salem State. He received the 2026 Salem State University Distinguished Teaching Award and the Salem State University Civic Engagement Hall of Fame Award (2018).

• Climate obstruction 
• Corporate capture and regulatory capture
• Climate and environmental justice
• Just transitions and decarbonization policy
• Political economy of energy and extractive industries
• Global climate governance

Stephens, J.C., Yadin, S., Delina, L., Fitzgerald, L., Garcia-Gibson, F., Green, F., Gregory-Roberts, F., Healy, N.,Hess, D., Kamuti, T., Losekann, C., Michaels, D. & Solomun, D. (2025). Confronting Climate Obstruction: The Role of Civil Society and Non-State Actors in the Global Assessment of Climate Obstruction. In T. Roberts, C. Milani, J. Jacquet, & C. Downie (Eds.), The Global Assessment of Climate Obstruction.

Hiltner, S., Eaton, E., Healy, N., Scerri, A., Stephens, J.C., & Supran, G. (2024). Fossil fuel influence in higher education: A review and research agenda (WIREs Climate Change)

Donaghy, T. Q., Healy, N., Jiang, C. Y., & Battle, C. P. (2023). Fossil fuel racism in the United States: How phasing out coal, oil, and gas can protect communities. Energy Research & Social Science

Green, F., & Healy, N. (2022). How Inequality Fuels Climate Change: The Climate Case for a Green New Deal. One Earth. 

Basseches, J. A., Bromley-Trujillo, R., Boykoff, M. T., Culhane, T., Hall, G., Healy, N., ... & Stephens, J. C. (2022). Climate policy conflict in the US states: a critical review and way forward. Climatic Change, 170(3), 1-24.

Galvin, R., & Healy, N. (2020). The Green New Deal Is More Relevant Than Ever. Scientific American, April 22nd. 

Galvin, R., & Healy, N. (2020). The Green New Deal in the United States: What it is and how to pay for it. Energy Research & Social Science, 67, 101529.

Trencher, G., Healy, N., Hasegawa, k., & Asuka, J. (2019). Discursive resistance to phasing out coal-fired electricity: Narratives in Japan's coal regime. Energy Policy, 132, 782-796.

Healy, N., Stephens, J.C., Malin, S. (2019). Embodied energy injustices: Unveiling and politicizing the transboundary harms of fossil fuel extractivism and fossil fuel supply chains. Energy Research & Social Science, 48, 219-234.

2019: Healy, N., Stephen, J.C., Malin, S. (2019). Fossil fuels are bad for your health and harmful in many ways beyond climate change. The Conversation. 

Healy, N.  & Barry, J. (2017). Politicizing Energy Justice and Energy System Transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a "just transition". Energy Policy, 108, 451-742. 

Healy, N., Debski, J*., (2017). Fossil fuel divestment: Implications for the future of sustainability discourse and action within higher education. Local Environ. 1-26.

SELECT GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Climate Social Science Network Grant, Brown University

2017 Rachel Carson Fellowship, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich

2017 German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Faculty Scholarship

2013, 2015, 2016 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship

SELECT AWARDS

2026 Salem State University Distinguished Teaching Award

2018 Salem State University Civic Engagement Hall of Fame

SELECT KEYNOTE AND INVITED TALKS (2021-PRESENT)

Healy, N (2026) Student involvement in Geothermal Energy Networks, MIT, May 2nd. 

Healy, N. (2024). Decolonizing climate and energy policy: Forging a just global green transformation. Tufts University, November 20th

Healy, N. (2024). Rethinking climate policies: The Green New Deal policy paradigm. University of Miami. Nov 8th.

Healy, N. (2024). International Climate Policy is Neo-Imperialist. Oxford Union. University of Oxford. May 2nd. 

Healy, N (2022). The Green New Deal Policy Paradigm: Good policy and good politics. Global Development Policy Center, Boston University, Nov 3rd.

Healy, N (2021). A just transition for whom? The contested politics of global decarbonization. Economic Democracy initiative, Open Society University Network, Bard College. July 13th. 

Healy, N (2021). The Green New Deal: From Just Transitions to Great Transformations. Utrecht University, 17th February 

SELECT MEDIA COVERAGE:

2024: Universities' fossil fuel funding may be slowing green energy transition, study finds. The Guardian, Sept. 5th. 

2024: University ties to fossil fuel industry face growing scrutiny. Financial Times, Sept. 5th. 

2024: International Climate Policy is Neo-Imperialist. Professor Noel healy Address to the Oxford Union. (YouTube)

2024: Oxford Union believes international climate policy is Neo-Imperialist (Cherwell)

2022: ¿Por qué es inexcusable para las empresas no asumir la justicia climática? (Forbes)

2022: How inequality makes climate change worse (The Boston Globe)

2022: Inequality fuels the climate crisis (op-ed in The Hill)

2022: Funding GND Requires Political Will - Interview with Noel Healy (Global Center for Climate Justice).

2021: Global Climate Policy Reboot: Launching a US-Canada Fossil Fuel Phase Out (Common Dreams)

2018: Interview with Colombian National Radio (W-Radio)

2018: Blood Coal: Ireland's dirty secret (The Guardian)

2018: ESB buying coal from 'harrowing' Colombian mine (The Times)