EDS348 Global Environmental Governance
Credits (ECTS):10
Course responsible:Guri Bang
Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås
Teaching language:Engelsk
Course frequency:Annually
Nominal workload:Total workload: 250 hrs. Lectures: 30 hrs. Group discussions, excursion, seminars and student presentations: 30 hrs. Self-study, assignments, preparation of presentations etc.: 185 hrs. Exam: 4hrs
Teaching and exam period:This course starts in Spring parallel. This course has teaching and evaluation in Spring parallel.
About this course
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.
Learning outcome
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
- Standard lectures will be combined with problem-based learning and group discussions. The course includes seminars where students are engaged in active learning through making a podcast (group work), learning how to write popular science texts - an op-ed/column (individual assignment), and giving presentations in groups. The course also includes an excursion where students meet environmental governance representatives and learn from their practices.
- Lectures, seminars, discussions in class, and group- and individual supervision
- Bachelor degree
- Background in basic social science theory
Combined assessment.
Portfolio assessment is part of the combined assessment. The portfolio assessment includes:
- Group work: Podcast (20%)
- Individual assignment: Op-ed (20%)
Written exam (3,5 hrs) 60%.
Exam in English only. Letter grades A-F
School exam Grading: Letter grades Permitted aids: A2 No calculator, other aids as specified Portfolio Grading: Letter grades- An external examiner will oversee the quality of examinations and evaluate a selected number of the final written exams
- Group work with associated seminars. Excursion. Students are expected to attend a minimum of 60% of the classes offered by the course.
- None
- Lectures: 30 hrs. Group discussions, excursion, seminars, and student presentations: 30 hrs. Excursion: 1 day.
- M-IES and M-EEG
- Minimum requirements for entrance to Master level education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse)