Course summary

The planet is facing a climate emergency. Climate Change is the most significant and complex challenge to human social, political and economic systems. International Relations and Climate Change degree at Aberystwyth University is key to understanding this complexity and confronting this global crisis. From the individual to the global level action is urgently required. While individual contributions and efforts to save our planet are important, without local, national, regional and global cooperation and coordination the damage to our climate, environment and ecological systems cannot be slowed let alone reversed. Without states, international organisations, NGOs and social movements working together this existential global challenge cannot be effectively tackled. What are the obstacles to such cooperation? What possibilities are there to overcome them? These questions are at the heart of this innovative, incisive and intellectually stimulating degree scheme. The course provides a thorough and critical understanding of the interconnectedness of politics and international relations, climate change, the environment and natural resources, inequality and development, and cooperation and conflict. In particular this programme focuses on evaluating the nature of the climate emergency, its political, economic, social and ecological impacts, and the political, social, economic and human responses to it. In studying this course you will:

• Engage with and develop a distinct multidisciplinary approach to the international politics of climate change.

• Analyse the causes and consequence of climate change and environmental degradation, especially from the perspective of international politics.

• Reflect on ways that states and societies struggle with managing the planet’s resources and ecological systems and to develop effective political and societal solutions.

• Examine links between climate change and other global challenges such as conflict, migration, inequality and governance.

• Explore through simulations the experience of decision-making processes, negotiations and the politics surrounding contemporary climate governance.