Overview

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Topic:  Global Climate Change Politics

Course description:

The course explores the international politics of climate change. Topics include: the causes and consequences of climate change, history of international discussions, UN negotiations and policy agreements, the positions of key countries and the global shift to lowcarbon development. We will focus on international negotiations and recent agreements that define the global response to the problem, and how they portray the global politics around the issue. Students will also learn about the domestic policies of major countries and gain a sense of the socioeconomic transformation towards a clean economy and low-carbon development. The course draws on the instructor’s experience in UN diplomacy, as member of the European Union delegation in climate change negotiations.

Objectives and outcomes:

The overarching learning goals are to

1) accumulate factual knowledge about the subject,
2) obtain insight about factors affecting climate politics, and
3) develop practical skills at problem solving and policymaking that can be applied in various professional contexts.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the climate change problematique and climate policy debates
2. Understand political, economic and social factors that shape global policy responses;
3. Apply knowledge in discussions on climate policy, through classroom simulations of international negotiations;
4. Become better at critical reading of complex texts, and assessing academic claims. Students who pass the course with 90 or above, would be prepared to:
5. Participate on the Canadian delegation to UN climate conferences, and
6. Engage professionally in climate policymaking and multilateral negotiations.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: