EDS348 Global Environmental Governance

This course will examine national, regional, and international policies designed to address global environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, chemical hazards, and energy system transitions. The class will explore why environmental problems occur, identify the characteristics and drivers of global environmental problems, and critically discuss their underlying causes. We will examine the range of policy responses developed by society to address environmental challenges, including international environmental agreements, national environmental policies, and transnational governance arrangements initiated by non-state actors. Environmental governance is often characterized by conflict, centered around distributional, geographical, or other context-dependent implications of policies, and students will learn both about conflict drivers and potential solutions. The class will critically explore norms, rules, institutions, and practices that structure environmental governance at different levels (local, national, and international). We will also address the linkages and interactions between governance levels. Students will learn how to evaluate policy responses designed to ameliorate environmental problems, focusing on social justice aspects and legitimacy. The course will provide in-depth knowledge about the main actors of global environmental governance, including states, international institutions, transnational governance actors, and non-state actors. Environmental policies in Norway and key actors like the United States, China, India, and the EU will be used as examples.

Knowledge goals:

• Acquire comprehensive knowledge of the design and practices of environmental politics and governance
• Gain deep insights into environmental policy processes at different levels of governance, including the role of different actors, interests, institutions, and ideas involved in such processes
• Develop capacity to analyze environmental policies by employing theories and methods for policy analysis
• Be familiar with key international environmental agreements, conventions, and protocols, and how they function and interact with national and transnational environmental governance initiatives.

Skills goals:

• Critically analyze and understand relevant institutions
• Critically evaluate environmental governance at the global, national, and local levels
• Actively participate and contribute to academic discussions about environmental governance
• Provide and receive constructive review on academic texts and presentations
• Give presentations on environmental governance topics
• Participate constructively in teamwork

General goals:

• Develop competency in critical thinking around environmental governance
• Reflection on own and other people's environmental attitudes, values, and norms