Postgraduate Course: Understanding the Climate Crisis (EFIE11566)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *EFI Skills and Methods Suite*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on one of Edinburgh Futures Institute's sustainability-themed postgraduate programmes. These programmes are:
- Circular Economy
- Future Infrastructure, Climate Change and Sustainability
- Planetary Health
- Sustainable Lands and Cities
Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity. This is a shared core course that will provide students with a foundational understanding of climate change and the challenges we face in reducing our emissions and adapting to the changes we are already experiencing. The course topics include introduction to climate change sciences, policy, risk and communication. |
| Course description |
Our planet's climate is rapidly changing due to the industrialisation of many societies. This change is happening quickly and is one of humanity's greatest challenges. Climate change is already affecting every region across the globe, with human influence on the climate contributing to biodiversity loss, observed changes in weather, extreme events, and overconsumption of the planet's material and natural resources. Climate change is also impacting on human health and human settlements (both urban and rural). To begin to tackle this wicked problem, it is important to first understand the mechanisms which drive it both physical and social.
This course will examine the hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities in relation to climate risk. We will discuss the science behind this global disaster as well as the politics and behaviour that drive it. We will address the need for both mitigation and adaptation.
The course will introduce the complexities of implementing mitigation and adaptation solutions to address the climate crisis at a range of scales from individuals, communities to international policy. Students will learn from climate experts and the latest international reports to gain a clearer understanding of climate change. Through case studies and reports, students will also gain a global perspective and discuss the impacts of the climate crisis from the perspectives of gender, race, indigenous communities and class. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the intersections of the climate crisis and their chosen programme of study.
This course aims to provide students with a critical understanding of climate change from the science to the policy. We will provide key foundational topics, guest speakers and an opportunity to debate challenging topics emerging from the climate crisis. We will do this through lectures, discussion activities, formative tasks, group activities and guest speakers.
We will deliver the course over 2 hour lectures per week for 10 weeks. There will be formative tasks every 2 weeks for students to discover and explore, with group feedback given.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, a physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Climate Science Podcast (50%)
5-7 minute podcast. Students will create a podcast-style audio article for a listening-media audience, as if it were a standalone recording which will be part of a podcast series educating the public about the climate crisis. The style should be approachable to a 'general' adult audience (i.e. non-scientific/academic audience).
Students are required to present a summary of the main findings of their chosen article in their own words (i.e. not reading out the original text). May include any critique of the findings and link to relevant, policies, theories or concept of climate change/climate change models. Students will be given guidelines where to access 1) easy-to-use audio editing (online & desktop) software and 2) easily accessed technology that can be used to record the podcast. No specialised equipment/software will be required.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 4
2) Climate Change Policy Brief (50%)
Students will be expected to provide a 1,500 word max policy brief based on a rapid review of literature (systematic approach) on new and emerging technologies for a climate change sector of choice.
The policy brief should be written in plain English for a policy audience. The concise nature of the brief is purposeful as a key skill will be to translate and communicate complex information to a policy audience.
Templates and full guidance will be provided.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 2, 3, 4 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Formative feedback will be provided via individual (online) quizzes with sets of questions throughout the course to test student' understanding of the course material. This will not require revision beyond exposure to the learning and lecture materials. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the principal drivers of climate change and possible climate futures.
- Apply knowledge and understanding of projected climate change impacts, risks and resilience - at global, national, and local scales - to their chosen field of study (e.g., Planetary Health, Sustainable Lands and Cities, Circular Economy).
- Critique policies on greenhouse gas control and the connections to climate change policies at global and national scales.
- Convey, formally and informally, information about climate change to a range of audiences (knowledge exchange).
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Reading List
Climate change : a very short introduction / Mark Maslin. Author: Maslin, Mark, author. Type: E-book ISBN: 9780191904721 Publisher: Oxford University Press Place of Publication: Oxford Publication Date: 2021 Edition: Fourth edition
Critical climate justice The Geographical journal Author: Sultana, Farhana Type: Article ISSN: 00167398 Publisher: Wiley Place of Publication: HOBOKEN Publication Date: 2022-03 Total Pages: 118-124 Pages: 118-124 Volume: 188 Issue: 1 DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12417
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Summary For Policymakers Canadian Journal of Emergency Management Author: Boudreau, Kaitlyn ; Robinson, Melanie ; Farooqi, Zahrah Type: Article ISSN: 25637436 Publication Date: 2022-01-01 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 DOI: 10.25071/6sw6za31 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Climate Change,Policy,Communication,Risk,Adaptation,Mitigation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Patrick Miner
Tel:
Email: pminer@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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