The Politics of Climate Change

This course examines climate change as a political problem at the international, national, and local levels. The course focuses on the major theoretical explanations for why responding to such a serious problem (both in terms of mitigation and adaptation) is proving so difficult. The course also examines some of the suggested solutions and the challenges that these entail.

Knowledge - the student shall:

• acquire basic knowledge about climate change and its potential socioeconomic consequences
• develop knowledge of major theoretical approaches used to understand the difficulties of dealing with climate change
• become familiar with key proposed solutions to climate change and the difficulties these may pose

Skills - the student shall demonstrate the ability to:

• identify, understand, and to some degree apply, the key models and theories relating to the politics of climate change
• identify dilemmas and trade-offs embodied in the proposed solutions

2 hours of lectures per week throughout the semester and some seminars focusing on the term paper. For valgbare emner i fordypningen i statsvitenskap gjelder følgende: Dersom færre enn 10 studenter deltar i undervisningen de to første undervisningsukene, blir undervisningen gitt som et veiledet lesekurs.