Dealing with Climate Change:
From Global to Local Perspectives

Climate change requires urgent action at different levels of implementation. As a global phenomenon it has different impacts in different parts of the world and is understood and experienced differently from place to place.


Image: Leon-Fabian Caspari

The course Dealing with Climate Change: From Global to Local Perspectives was successfully held from April to July 2023. The course addressed fundamental questions of relations between climate change and politics, justice, culture, history, and economics. Students and faculty from four ENLIGHT colleges and various disciplines participated in a cross-college online classroom. After an introduction to theoretical perspectives on climate change, key concepts in climate science, policy and activism, as well as different methods in social climate change research, students from the different universities collaborated in different research exercises involving quantitative and qualitative approaches. The course was developed with the participation of the Universities of Göttingen, Groningen, the Basque Country Uppsala and was implemented in the summer semester of 2023.

Program

• Introduction to a Critical Social Science Perspective on Climate Change
• Coaching Session I
• Climate Change in Context:
  The State of the World through the Lens of Ecological Economics
• Methods and Ways of Knowing in Climate Change Research
• Coaching Session II
• The Scalar Politics of Climate Change:
  The Global Climate Regime and Non-state Action
• Guest Lecture: Social Infrastructures of Climate Change Adaptation by
  Dr. Salvatore Paolo de Rosa (Lund University)
• Presentation of Exercise I
• In-depth session on Adaptation
• In-depth session on Mitigation
• In-depth session on Climate Justice
• Break
• On-site-week in Göttingen

Content

In this ENLIGHT Blended Intensive Program, students conducted a multidisciplinary investigation from global ramifications to various local perspectives on climate change and its impacts in different cities and regions across the world. The course addressed climate change from the perspective of the social sciences. This included fundamental questions of relations between climate change and politics, justice, culture, history, and economics. Students were part of a cross-university online classroom with students from the corresponding universities of the cities mentioned above, as well as a multidisciplinary team of scholars from these institutions. During the online classes, students were introduced to theoretical perspectives on climate change, key concepts in climate science, policy and activism, as well as different methods in climate change research. In a group of students from the different universities, they participated in different climate change research exercises involving quantitative and qualitative approaches. The course was both lecture and seminar style where in-class discussions were a central element. While the online sessions dealt with larger scales such as global or national ones, students engaged with local climate change challenges in workshops during an on-site week in Göttingen from June 18, 2023 to June 23, 2023. During the on-site week, students and researchers from the other universities, whom they had previously only met online, had the opportunity to meet and collaborate in person. They also had the chance to get to know the university city of Göttingen in central Germany and learned about the consequences and challenges of climate change for its citizens.

On-site-week

During the on-site-week, all students and teachers met in Göttingen for the first time. The on-site-week was divided into three thematic blocks: climate adaptation, climate mitigation and climate justice. The first block focused on urban climate adaptation strategies, their preparation, implementation and financing. The students' task was to evaluate the climate adaptation plans of different cities around the world using the methodologies they had learned during the online phase. The results were clear: most urban adaptation plans are not yet sufficient to cope with the impacts of climate change in a world that is 2 degrees warmer. The second block focused on the distribution of CO2 reduction measures within a city. In a simulation, the students had to decide on the fair and effective distribution of CO2 savings in a fictitious municipality. This was followed by a visit and discussion with two climate managers, Heinrich Petri and Lydia Köbele, from the municipalities of Bovenden and Radolfshausen. The third block dealt with the intertwining of climate impacts and coloniality and was filled with debates on coloniality in climate governance. The highlight was a discussion with four local climate activists from different activist groups in Göttingen. In a closing session we reflected on the whole course and the lessons and shortcomings of its format.