Short Course Description
Though many believe that climate change poses a grave danger to the future of human civilization, the international mobilization to address this global challenge is fraught by political, ideological and organizational problems. In this course, we will explore aspects of global climate politics and global climate governance by focusing on their economic roots and implications: global capitalism, the neoliberal world order, consumer society, the dominance of transnational corporations, the economic conflict among global North and South, and the effort to institute global governance arrangements that can redirect economic activity along sustainable lines. Additional topics to be touched on include the relations between climate change and economic development, the political economy of the clean energy transition, corporate environmentalism, greenwashing, and climate lobbying; the role of the global financial sector in climate action, and the prospects of reaching global net zero GHG emissions by 2050. The course is inclusive of diverse disciplines and theoretical approaches in the social sciences, including environmental sociology, political economy, environmental management, governance theory, science and technology studies, and more. The grade will be based mainly on a final exam.
Full Syllabus
