LNAK10069U Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation

Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation is an interdisciplinary E-learning course offered by the University of Copenhagen in close cooperation with the Danish Meteorological Institute, Oxford University and Australian National University.

Through distance learning it is available everywhere, and it is open for MSc students and continuing education students with a relevant BSc background in natural science, social science and economics.

The focus of the course is climate change impacts and the human response to climate change, including efforts to adapt to climate change, as well as efforts to avoid or reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Using IPCC Assessment Reports as the main reference together with recent complementary and contrasting findings, the relevant scientific tools are applied to analyse and discuss the different aspects of climate change.

The course is divided in four main parts. In the first part of the course the E-learning platform is introduced and a basic understanding of the physical science of climate change is given, together with a brief introduction to the ongoing climate change debate. Natural and anthropogenic drivers, and direct observations of recent climate change are presented. Different climate change models and scenarios are presented and discussed in relation to future climate change projections. 

In the second part of the course the impacts of climate change and potential adaptation strategies in different sectors are presented. After a short introduction to different apporaches to climate change adaptation, the climate change impacts and adaptation practices for ecosystems, land use, water resources and human health are presented and discussed in relation to both options, constraints, costs and benefits. National climate change adaptation strategies from selected developed and developing countries are analyzed and discussed.

The third part of the course deals with climate change mitigation strategies. After a general introduction to potential mitigation strategies, the most relevant technological and economic mitigation strategies are presented and discussed, including carbon sequestration, energy system transformation and renewable energy technologies, carbon trading and carbon offsetting. National climate change mitigation plans from some of the world's major emitters of greenhouse gases are analyzed and discussed.

In the fourth and final part of the course the focus is climate change policy and social change. First, the current status of international climate change negotiations is discussed. Afterwards, climate change policy is discussed in relation to the green economy paradigm. Finally, the course ends with a discussion of the need for social change in order to reduce the negative impacts of climate change.

For more information see the course homepage at www.climate-change.dk.