Meeting Climate Change Challenges and Commitments: A View from the Global South

Climate change is the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. As a consequence of this, 195 countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to hold the increase in global average temperatures to below 2° celsius from pre-industrial levels. This international commitment spawned a complex framework and process to achieve this goal, which presents unique challenges for developing nations. This course furthers students’ understanding of climate change, including the science, causes, impacts, actions, and policies taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The course introduces students to the international climate change policy framework, with attention paid to the policy-making process, particularly the role, aim, and history of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Emphasis is placed on developing countries parties, which are considered most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This course also prepares and provides students with the opportunity to travel to a developing country to learn first-hand the current development and climate change issues impacting the country and the policies in place to address them. The first part of the course focuses on climate change science, causes, impacts, and policy. Students review key climate change concepts: vulnerability, resilience, adaptation, and mitigation among others in the context of the global south. In the second part of the course, students learn about the history of the negotiations and the negotiation process at the UNFCCC (objectives, role, and negotiating groups). The course inspects the Paris Agreement (PA), its components and implications, as well as the challenges to comply with the commitments agreed under it. Finally, the third part of the course focuses on preparing students for a negotiation simulation on a topic being debated at the annual Conference of Parties (COP).