Postgraduate Course: Business and Climate Change (ECNM11033)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course first introduces the concept corporate carbon footprints and their assessment. It goes on to cover the various management polices currently used by companies to reduce carbon emissions and the ethics of such mitigation. It examines the supply chain and the influence businesses have in effecting change in the carbon footprint of this chain. Finally it closely examines the investment basis for climate mitigation by business, the perceived barriers to this investment, and the legislative drivers for change. |
| Course description |
"Climate change is the single most important strategic issue facing business in the next fifty years"
- Professor David Levy, University of Massachusetts, 2009.
Whether or not you agree with the above statement, it is undoubtedly true that business attitudes to climate change have undergone a remarkable evolution over the past twenty years. Climate change is now widely regarded as a strategic issue with significant operational and financial implications for business. Grappling with these implications is made extremely difficult by the complex interactions between climate change science, policy and economics, each with their own uncertainties, overlaps and contested domains. Nevertheless, new management practices and tools are emerging to help businesses find a path through the changing ¿landscape¿ in which they operate. There is a need for business practitioners and other stakeholders (such as NGOs, government, media and the general public) to develop a deeper understanding of the present and future implications of climate change for business.
Syllabus
Climate Change Strategy
Corporate Sustainability
Regulation Mechanisms & UK Regulations
EU ETS & Other Compliance Markets
Law and Politics of Climate Change
Carbon Footprinting
Carbon Benchmarking
Green Marketing, Offsetting, and Voluntary Carbon Markets
Energy, Waste & Recycling
Finance Fundamentals
Investment and Climate Change: Risks for Investors
Investment and Climate Change: Financing the Transition
Carbon in the Supply Chain
Group Presentations
Group Presentations
Circular Economy
Guest Speaker
Student Learning Experience
Through this course, students will have an opportunity to develop their business analytical skills, numerical skills, information retrieval and synthesis skills, team-working, leadership and presentation skills. These skills will be developed throughout the course, via reading and reflecting on academic and other literature, and on the content of lectures; discussions with fellow students and lecturers; coursework and exam preparation.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students on other School of GeoSciences and Business School or School of Economics MSc programmes may enrol by prior agreement between relevant Programme Directors and the Course Organiser. Anyone wishing to enrol students from outside of these Schools should contact the Course Secretary in the first instance. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 40,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
154 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
70 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Group presentation in week 8 on topic allocated in week 6 (30%).
Written examination consisting of 5-6 compulsory short answer questions and 1 longer essay question (from a choice of 3) (70%).
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| Feedback |
Feedback on formative assessed work will be provided within 15 working days of submission, or in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course, whichever is sooner. Summative marks will be returned on a published timetable, which has been made clear to students at the start of the academic year.
Students will gain feedback on their understanding of the material when they discuss their answers to the tutorial questions in the tutorials. Students may also ask questions in Lectures to assess their knowledge.
Feedback will consist of in-class discussions, case studies and exercises (informal peer and lecture feedback), group presentations (formal peer and lecturer feedback) and general feedback on the exam questions will be provided to all students. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Business and Climate Change | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Overarching Learning Outcomes Understand and critically evaluate the main impacts climate change is having on business (and vice versa)
- Identify climate change-related strategic risks and opportunities
- Apply some of the tools and practices associated with measuring, reporting and analysing carbon emissions
- Understand and critically evaluate how climate change affects shareholder value and investment decisions
- Explain and discuss how carbon offsets and allowances are created and traded, and critically evaluate the implications for corporate sustainability.
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Reading List
Bossley, L. & Kerr, A. (2008) Climate Change and Emissions Trading; what every business needs to know
Braungart, M. and McDonough, W. (2009). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.
European Commission (2011) A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/documentation/roadmap/docs/com_2011_112_en.pdf
Guyatt, D., Curtis, R., Wu, J., Liam, H., Jacobson, S., Beenen, J. & Others (2011) Climate Change Scenarios: Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation-Public Report. Mercer, International Finance Corporation, Carbon Trust Report. Read executive summary and pages 67-88
Hoffman, A. (2007) Carbon Strategies: How Leading Companies Are Reducing Their Climate Change Footprint, The University of Michigan Press. Access online at:
http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/PEW_CorpStrategies.pdf
IPCC (2007) Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Access online at:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf
Jackson, T. (2011) Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet
Labatt, S. and White, R. (eds) (2007) Carbon Finance: The Financial Implications of Climate Change
Mackenzie, C. & Ascui, F. (2009) Investor Leadership on Climate Change. UN Global Compact. Access online at: http://www.unpri.org/files/climate.pdf
Pinkse, J. and Kolk, A. (2009), International Business and Global Climate Change, Routledge
Porritt, J. (2007) Capitalism as if the world matters, revised edition, Introduction, Pages xix-xxiv (Book in the library)
Porritt, J. (2013) The World We Made: Alex McKay¿s Story from 2050, Phaidon Press
Senge, P., Smith, B., Kruschwitz, N., Laur, J. and Schley, S. (2010) The Necessary Revolution: how individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world, Nicholas Brealey Publishing: London, Chapter 8, ¿Risks and Opportunities: The Business Rationale for Sustainability¿, pp. 101-118
Sullivan, R. (ed) (2008) Corporate Responses to Climate Change: Achieving Emissions Reductions Through Regulation, Self-Regulation and Economic Incentives, Greenleaf Publishing |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Subject Specific Skills:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Understand new developments in climate change policy and regulation and incorporate them into analytical frameworks.
Be able to evaluate corporate carbon emissions and risks and opportunities
Conduct a firm level carbon footprint.
Target potential management interventions to deliver climate change mitigation
Identify the key issues that climate change presents companies from the prospective of project finance, marketing, new product development and supply chain.
Understand the investment opportunities and challenges low carbon projects and technologies.
In general, students should also be able to understand, speak and write the language of business and climate change. |
| Keywords | BCC |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Gbenga Ibikunle
Tel: (0131 6)51 5186
Email: Gbenga.Ibikunle@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Ashley Harper
Tel: (0131 6)51 5671
Email: Ashley.Harper@ed.ac.uk |
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