Politics Climes:
Topic Objectives and Format:
This topic begins with an introduction to the science and institutional framework for addressing climate change. It then presents a political framework before drilling down in depth into some of the key issues falling under the climate change umbrella.
Climate change spans a wide range of disciplines – science, economics, politics and philosophy. While the subject is not intended to be overly technical, there are some important aspects of the application of these disciplines to the climate change problem that need to be covered as a prelude to a deeper examination of the political issues. The materials for the classes on science and economics have been prepared on the assumption that students have no prior knowledge so no-one will be disadvantaged by the multi-disciplinary approach we will be using.
The political issues are broad. Some of the main ones are participatory democracy, effectiveness of international institutions, social justice, national sovereignty, technological innovation and capital formation. These issues will be covered in class with student interest being taken into account in determining the relative emphasis on each.
An important end point will be the development among students of a keen appreciation of the many issues that will be dealt with by the UNFCCC at its meeting in Paris in late 2015. This meeting is expected to be a watershed in the global effort for addressing climate change and students of this subject should be able to track the development of these issues beyond the 2015 meeting.
Expected Aims:
• provide an opportunity for Politics Honours students, International Relations Graduate, Diploma and Masters students and Masters of Public Administration students to engage in advanced-level academic and professional analysis of the problems of governance at the domestic and international level associated with reducing anthropocentric contributions to climate change in both the developed and developing world
• encourage advanced-level verbal discussion and academic argument further developed students’ skills in academic research, bibliographic analysis and professional writing
• give students the opportunity to demonstrate their degree of readiness to advance to postgraduate study in this academic field.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this topic will be able to:
• demonstrate the ability to engage in advanced-level academic analysis the political, economic and social issues related to addressing climate change and greenhouse gas emission reduction in the international context
• understand the state of the academic literature and political practice with respect to a select range of climate change and energy policy issues
• demonstrate the ability to engage in verbal discussion and academic argument at graduate level and apply developed skills in academic research, bibliographic analysis and professional writing.
Essential References and Reading:
The course schedule includes a large number of readings divided into “key readings” and “other readings”. These readings are intended to provide students with a base for their research projects.
It is not expected that students will have read all of the key readings before each class, though students doing the class reflection are expected to draw upon at least the key readings designated for their allocated class.
There is no reader for this subject. The currency of the climate change issue means that many of the references are freely available on the internet from Google Scholar or just Google in many cases. Other readings can be sourced from the Central Library.
Students interested in general texts are referred to:
- Giddens, A. 2009. The Politics of Climate Change. London, Polity.
This book is clearly written and thoughtful on the issue of the politics of climate change. It is written by one of the late 20th century leaders in the field of sociology and political science. There are 4 copies in the library on 7 day loan and 1 copy on 4 week loan. The call number is: 363.73874 G453p
Another recommended option is:
- Dryzek, J.S. The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2005.
This book is especially valuable to students committed to studying environment issues or those committed to Green politics. There are plenty of copies of the first and second editions available for loan from the library at call number: 333.7 D811p.2.