Climate Change Diplomacy: Negotiating Effectively Under the UNFCCC

Background

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of 21st century diplomacy and international governance. Given the many different stakeholders and communities who have roles to play, it is a contemporary challenge with regard to its demand on interdisciplinary knowledge, skills and languages, and the personal capacities needed to combine these so as to make diplomatic sense and success. Competing interests, political tensions, and challenges of the world today, such as the economic recession and competing development priorities, mean that negotiation deadlocks are rife and ways to overcome them are becoming more and more challenging to find.

Event Objectives

This online course will develop participants’ understanding of the climate change policy framework, by building an appreciation of the science, causes and impacts of climate change, the history of the policy making process and the UNFCCC framework, and will also consider the pertinent challenges currently facing diplomats and international decision makers in making progress with what is currently on the negotiating table. The course will take a close look at the negotiations to-date and will consider the hot topics for negotiators as the global community moves towards establishing a new global agreement on climate change by 2015. The course will take a close look at gender in the negotiations and also the specific interests of parties who are most vulnerable to impacts of climate change.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants should be able to:


• Describe climate change science and the observed and projected impacts of climate change;

• Track and explain the international climate change policy framework, including the climate change negotiations to date under the UNFCCC;

• Define both climate change mitigation and adaptation;

• Analyze international considerations for climate change decision-making;

• Appraise the key issues in the ongoing international climate change negotiations,and how to build and move forward from COP20.
• Content and Structure

The course content is to be confirmed but will tentatively include the following one-week modules:

• Understanding Climate Change and Global Vulnerabilities
• Introduction to Climate Change Diplomacy
• Implementation, Compliance and Enforcement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto its Protocol
• Mitigating Climate Change
• Adapting to Climate Change
• International Considerations for Climate Change Decision Making- International Climate Financing and Technology Transfer
• Capacity Building, Education, Research
• Progressing Towards Future Climate Agreements

Methodology

e-Learning

The course is internet-based, moderated by senior international experts, asynchronous, and places emphasis on online discussions and self-paced learning. The participants will be primarily responsible for their own learning over the eight-week span of the course. The course will consist of the following components:

• Compulsory and optional reading material, intended to teach the basic concepts and principles of the lesson's subject-matter;
• External links to additional books, articles, documents, and websites related to the lessons;
• Quizzes and case studies at the end of each module. To be eligible for the course certificate, a passing grade of 80% on both quizzes and case studies is required;
• A Community Discussion Board will be available for participants to post questions or comments visible to the instructor and other participants. This discussion board will be moderated by the course director and UNITAR.