B2924 - Institutions and Policies for Climate Change

Learning outcomes

The student will be able to frame the complex phenomeon of the climate change, to understand the main interdependencies pertaining to the economic and political aspects as well as to the local, sovranational and global dimensions. The students will be able to detect the main consequences in some areas of the economy, society and of international relations. The student will also be able to describe the origin and the evolution of international agreements and programs aiming at dealing with the climate change as well as to understand the impact of such phenomenon on different regions/areas of the world. Specifically, the module is concerned with the political and institutional dimensions of the climate change policies at the international European and national levels. In particular, the module: will provide an introduction to the issue and problem definition; a brief history of international climate change negotiations; an overview of how the international legal and policy framework to address climate change developed over time; a focus on EU efforts in promoting agreements. Institutions, policy programs and measure referred to sustainable agriculture, national and local policy programs will be illustrated.

Course contents

The course program consists of three modules.  

This second module of the course includes:

1. Introduction over basic concepts and contents of climate change policies (mitigation, adaption); overview of the origins and development of international cooperation and climate policy regimes.

2. Global conventions and legal frameworks, key elements and provisions of the UNFCCC, its organisational structure, and the different Parties (sstates in Annex I and non Annex I); other policy actors in IPCC.

3. Kyoto Protocol and EU ETS; European Union initiatives and climate policy in promoting climate change agreements;New Green Deal and recent implementation Packages(Fit for 55) and FFto Fork.

4. COP 21 and Paris Agreement, the Paris Agreement and INDC (national commitments), the most recent developments.

5. States and national governments and their role in INDCs formulation and implementation. The role of the European Union, the MSs in the Eu climate change policies

6. International organizations, and NGOs, global networks and national and local associations and movements, the Covenant of Mayors; case studies related to developed and developing countries.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography common to all the modules; one of the following books, at choice

a) Mastrojeni G. e Pasini A., 2017, Effetto serra, effetto guerra. Clima, conflitti, migrazioni: l'Italia in prima linea, Chiarelettere Editore

b) Di Paola M., 2015, Cambiamento climatico. Una piccola introduzione, LUISS University Press.

Bibliography for the second module

HALL N., 2016, The Institutionalisation of Climate Change in Global Politics, pp. 60-72 in Sosa-Nunez G. & Atkins E. (eds), Environment, Climate Change and International Relations

KEOHANE R. O., & VICTOR D., 2010, The Regime Complex for Climate Change, Discussion paper, Harvard Project of International Climate Change (paper su Virtuale)

Wirth D.A., 2017, The Paris Agreemnet as a New Component of the UN Climate Regime.International Organization Research Journal, vol 12, n. 4, pp. 185-2014

Delreux, T., & Ohler, F. (2019). Climate Policy in European Union Politics. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1097

Bäckstrand, Jonathan W. Kuyper, Björn-Ola Linnér & Eva Lövbrand, 2017 Non-state actors in global climate governance: from Copenhagen to Paris and beyond, in Environmental Politics, 26, 4 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2017.1327485

Una a scelta di queste letture

Amanatidis G, (2019), European policies on climate and energy towards 2020, 2030 and 2050, European Parliament, EP, ENVI in Focus

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2019/631047/IPOL_BRI(2019)631047_EN.pdf

European Commission, 2022, REPowerEU: A plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition, Brussels 18 May 2022, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_3131

Ovaere M., Proost S., 2022, Cost-effective reduction of fossil energy use in the European transport sector: An assessment of the Fit for 55 Package [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142152200310X], Energy Policy 168, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/energy-policy

 

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures, and experts' seminars on some topics

Assessment methods

For the attending students there will be two mid-term exams and a final exam. Each mid-term exam is worth 30% of the final grade; the final exams 40%.

The first mid-term exam will cover the arguments of the first module. The second mid-term exam will cover the arguments of the second and third modules. In each mid-term exam students must answer to three open questions; each exam lasts two hours.

The final exam will be a Report that students write at home; this Report will then be discussed with the instructors during the oral final exam. The topic of the Report will be communicated by IOL. The Report must be sent to the instructors at least 10 days before the oral final exam.

For the not-attending students the final exam will be oral and it will cover all the required readings.

Teaching tools

Text-books, Readings, Slides,websitesand database, videos and official documents

Office hours

See the website of Renata Lizzi