Climate Resilient Development (701M9)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

The course analyses the overlaps between disasters, climate change and poverty, focusing on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction approaches and their contribution to achieving climate resilient development. This course introduces you to key concepts underpinning climate resilient development, including vulnerability, risk, uncertainty, and resilience, as well as the role of climate and disasters science in informing policy and practice. Lectures will balance theoretical debates with issues in international policy, particularly the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and practical case study examples from development policy and practice.

Topics include: downscaling global climate data and dealing with uncertainty; impact modelling and sectoral planning approaches; seasonal forecasts and early warning; conceptual insights: vulnerability, risk, uncertainty and resilience; climate resilient development and international policy; community-based adaptation and national adaptation planning; climate change, migration and conflict; disaster risk reduction; mainstreaming and organisational change; adaptation delivery instruments; economics of adaptation and adaptation finance; and low carbon climate resilient development.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 47 hours of contact time and about 253 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2020/21. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.