Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POC2117: The Politics of Climate Change

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.

Module Aims

This module aims to help you examine why the issue of climate change is so difficult to address. While being rooted in concepts from political science, it aims to provide you with a platform through which the climate change problematique can be analysed from different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. Through a mixture of role play, discussions, seminar presentations and group work your learning will be organised key aspects of climate change governance, namely: politicalisation of science, the political economy of climate change, fairness in international negotiations’ and evaluating climate policy.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Understand the role and perspectives of different actors involved in climate policy 2. Demonstrate a good level of knowledge about the complexities of addressing climate change across different policy sectors and governance scales 3. Evaluate critically policy initiatives to tackle climate change 4. Identify examples of climate policy good practice and produce a critical evaluation of the lessons that can be drawn 5. Recognise the difficulties in reaching a meaningful global agreement on climate change
Discipline-Specific Skills	6. Think critically, analyse debates and present coherent arguments on politics 7. Evaluate the effectiveness of policy 8. Understand in-depth the reasons for and barriers to policy intervention 9. Critically apply theories of political science and international relations to real-life political situations
Personal and Key Skills	10. Effectively communicate complex topics in a coherent and well-structured manner 11. Reflect critically on learning outcomes

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

The politicisation of climate science
The political economy of climate change
Climate policy evaluation
Communicating climate change
International climate policy

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and teaching activity	22	11 x 2 hour seminars
Guided Independent Study	78	Reading and seminar preparation
Guided Independent Study	50	Course work preparation and writing

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Case study plan	500 words	1-3	Written and oral
Sample learning diary for the first 3 seminars of the course	500 words	1-10, 11	Written and oral

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
90	0	10

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Case study	60	2,000 words	1-10	Written
Learning diary	30	1,200 words	1-10, 11	Written
Group presentation as part of role play	10	10 minutes per person	1-10	Written and oral

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Case study	2,000 word case study	1-10	August\September reassessment period
Learning diary	1,200 word literature review outlining the key governance challenges posed by climate change	1-10	August\September reassessment period
Group presentation as part of role play	10 minute viva on international climate governance	1-10	Term 3

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Boykoff, M. (Ed) (2010) The Politics of Climate Change: A Survey. Routledge: London.

Brandstedt, E. and Bergrian, A (2013) Climate Rights: Feasible or not? Environmental Politics. Vol.22, issue 3, pp. 394-409

Giddens, A. (2009) The Politics of Climate Change. Polity Press, Cambridge. Pp 1-28

Jordan, A., & Huitema, D. (2014). Innovations in climate policy: the politics of invention, diffusion, and evaluation. Environmental Politics, 23 (5), 715-734

O’Riordan T. (2001) Climate Change. In Timothy O’Riordan (ed) Environmental Science for Environmental Management, pp. 170-185. Pearson Education, Harlow