Climate Change and Policy

The module will in three parts:

• Essentials of climate science.
• Impacts and adaptation to climate change.
• International climate policy and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally.

The module will be taught as three lectures and three seminars, with a single assessment at the end in which the student applies understanding of climate change to their own area of policy responsibility.

Week 1

In this week, we will examine: What are the processes underlying climate change? What can we say about future climate change, globally and in the UK? What are the key scientific uncertainties about climate change?

Week 2

In this week, we will examine: What are the main impacts for human and natural systems of climate change, globally and locally? We will describe and illustrate the key concepts of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Lastly, we will illustrate climate adaptation policies and challenges in two to three areas of UK Government policy.

Week 3

In this final week, we will overview the international climate policy and UK government commitments. Describing the scale of the challenge, we will apply climate scenarios and carbon budgets. Finally, we will discuss the application of climate targets in two to three sectors of the UK economy.

Upon completion of this module, students will be able to:

• Analyse the role of key actors in the regulatory process, the main modes of regulation and enforcement, and the key factors driving the process.
• Compare and evaluate the core features of the different theories of regulation and the different modes of regulation and enforcement
• Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the different theories of regulation and the different modes of regulation and enforcement.
• Evaluate the relevance of the different approaches for understanding real-world cases of regulation and enforcement, and assess the factors that have driven real-world regulatory choices.

This short course is for mid-career professionals. Standard entry requirements are a 2:1 degree plus 3 years of relevant work experience. Applicants without a 2:1 or higher degree are welcome to apply and typically require 5+ years of relevant work experience.

One written assignment, plus participation in webinars and discussion forums.

Our modules offer high levels of interaction with regular points of assessment and feedback. Each four week module is worth five Master's level academic credits and includes three webinars with a King's lecturer and peer group of global professionals.

Format: Fully online, plus 3 x 1-hour weekly webinars, plus one optional induction webinar in the week before the start of teaching and an optional assessment webinar in Week 4.

This module has been designed specifically for an online audience. It uses a range of interactive activities to support learning including discussion forums, online readings, interactive lectures videos and online tutorials.

Tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Module creators

Dr Tamsin Edwards Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography. Tamsin is a climate scientist specialising in quantifying the uncertainties of climate model predictions, particularly for the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet contributions to sea-level rise.

Dr Helen Adams Lecturer in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. Helen is an environmental social scientist working on the subjective dimensions of human interactions with environmental change, with a focus on marginal regions of low-income countries.

Professor Frans Berkhout Executive Dean, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. Frans is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy and Professor of Environment, Society and Climate at King’s College London. He joined King’s in 2013.

Please note that this is only indicative information. Lecturers and course content are subject to change. Please contact us directly for the most recent information.