Programme overview

Climate change has been widely identified as one of the most important challenges of the 21^st century. Making the kinds of changes, in political, social and economic terms, necessary to meet global greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets will be a monumental task.

This is a timely module that addresses a highly complex political issue. By the end of the module students should be able to relate the key messages of climate science to the main policy areas involved, i.e. energy, agriculture, transport and buildings, both in terms of how they contribute to emissions and how contributions can be mitigated. They will also have developed the ability to critically engage with a wide range of political approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions - at global, national and local levels.

Module objectives

The principal aims of this module are to equip students with the necessary tools to be able to:

• Understand and explain the political and scientific debates behind the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• Analyse the role of the main institutions and actors involved in climate change mitigation;
• Engage critically with a range of different political approaches to climate change in key sectors such as: energy, agriculture, and transport;
• Identify and explore links between global, national and local policies and politics.