2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PIED3590 The Global Politics of Climate Change

20 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Dr Sebastien Nobert/Dr Simon Manda
Email: S.Nobert@leeds.ac.uk/S.Manda@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

With the prospect of catastrophic climate change looming ahead, uncertainties over both frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events are positioning the development of scientific and political responses to climate-related hazards and risks as pivotal to mitigation, adaptation and resilient strategies. The development of those strategies includes novel terminologies, technologies and policy instruments enabling the redefinition societal futures whilst producing new sets of contingencies and indeterminacies over existing governance regimes. This module seeks to explore how the international responses to climate change politics has been organised and in the process, it aims at uncovering the underlying sets of morals, values and interests that are shaping and being shaped by the various concepts and institutions implicated in defining actions on climate change. Combining theoretical, case study and normative analysis, the module considers the nature and causes of climate change; global, national, and local attempts to limit and mitigate it; its current and projected future impacts; and the possibilities of climate change adaptation. Topics discussed will range from the UN climate regime to Extinction Rebellion, from the origins of our global fossil fuel economy to the politics of renewables, and from ‘climate refugees’ to the political economy of carbon offsetting. The module presents opportunities to students to interrogate climate change impacts in developing countries.

Objectives

The central objective of the module is not to shape climate policies, but rather to focus on understanding the theoretical and political issues underlying the fabric of climate change in a wider context of global environmental and social upheavals. To this end, the module will allow the students to perfect their knowledge of the socio-political ramifications involved in shaping global climate politics, while shedding a new light on the analytical possibilities that the multidisciplinary field of International Realtions offers in the face of the organisational challenges brought by a changing climate in the realm of international politics.
At the end of this course, the students will deepen their understanding of the social and political dimensions that intervene in the application and development of key concepts used to frame and arbitrate climate change politics. This knowledge will allow them to critically assess the ways in which climate has been thought as an object of political negotiation. The critical look at the intellectual foundations of climate change politics will in turn illuminate possible paths to reform the political in the face of the wider indeterminacies that define our current era.

Learning outcomes
1. Knoweldge of climate change politicis by recalling and analysing fundamental concepts acquired through the module.
2. Critical engagement of different concepts and analytical perspectives that are central to the social studies of climate change and that draws from both lectures and seminars.

Syllabus

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Seminar	11	1.00	11.00
Private study hours			178.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will be given feedback on plans for their assignment. Students will also be able to receive formative feedback through discussions with tutors in office hours.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	Essay	60.00
Assignment	research project	40.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

There is no reading list for this module

Last updated: 28/08/2024

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD