Its education activities include offering courses at the master's level as part of The Fletcher School's International Environment and Resource Policy field and direction and supervision of PhD students.

[5][6][7] While the center's outlook is global, faculty research concentrates on the United States, China, India, Brazil, and Niger.

[2] The Center is also engaged in advancing evidence-based policy making by disseminating its research through publishing academic peer-reviewed papers,[8] commentary in print and on-line media,[6][9][10][11][12] organizing conferences,[6] and issuing reports.

In 2007, the year that the Nobel Peace Prize[15] was jointly awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC and Vice President Al Gore, the school's Dean Stephen W. Bosworth stressed that "Issues such as energy and the environment are among the most pressing topics that a school such as Fletcher is going to have to address in the coming years", deciding to "enhance resources in teaching and research in these areas.

[2][16] CIERP was founded in 1992 by William Moomaw, the then Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

[3][27] Before joining the Fletcher faculty in 2009 she was a Senior Research Associate and Director of the Energy Technology Innovation Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.