Core Courses

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the science of global environmental change. Emphasis will be placed on understanding principles of earth system science, the scientific basis underlying the major components of global environmental change, the linkages between these components, and the central role of humanity in contributing to the observed changes. This course will emphasize current scientific topics in an interdisciplinary way. While this course is not intended for Biology majors, it is expected that students have some previous coursework in the natural sciences (biology, chemistry or physics). Most notably this course will help students develop: Effective skills in research, writing, speaking, reading and listening; An understanding of the natural world, the scientific method and the power and limits of science; and critical and analytical reasoning skills required to solve abstract and concrete problems.

This course will provide a basic understanding of the main international development issues relating to climate change and cover the latest financial developments relating to climate change. Climate finance is a fast-moving field, and the course will endeavor to expose you to the latest advances. It will cover climate related financial risk, sustainable asset management, climate change risk for financial institutions, and central bank supervision. It aims to unlock solutions within capital markets to address the challenges posed by global climate change. It will examine physical, transition, and legal risks that financial institutions are increasingly exposed to. The course will combine lectures, guest lectures by practitioners, and case studies. The topics covered are among others the pricing of climate change risk, the role of climate risk disclosures, climate stress tests, net zero aligned portfolio construction, financial regulation, monetary policy, government regulation and technical change in renewable energy.

The course firstly aims to explore climate change policy at local, national, and international -levels. This will include briefly examining the science of climate change; the connection between GHG emissions, climate impacts and the real economy; the theory underpinning the policy response to climate change on mitigation and adaptation; the principal policy and regulatory tools currently in use; as well as the principal connections between policy and the investment environment needed to meet long-term climate goals. The course will also introduce students to the writing of ‘policy briefs’ – a critical tool and skill set needed for professionals working with the policy community. The course then aims to explore key concepts and considerations related to the topic of international climate finance. The course will focus principally on the role of governments and public sector actors in providing, catalyzing and mobilizing financial flows for climate change mitigation and adaptation in both developing and developed countries. It explores the connections between the political “100 billion” climate finance commitment at the international level and the “100 trillion” investment challenge governments face to meet the investment needs to transform national economies. It will look at the different tools, instruments, and policies that these mandates entail – as well as the interactions between governments and the private sector as public resources are used to ‘leverage’, ‘redirect’ and ‘blend’ additional private finance and investment. It will go beyond mitigation objectives to present an overview of the challenges related to adaptation, research & development financing, supporting SMEs and the creation of entire climate service value chains. Finally, the course will also introduce the concepts of ‘concessionality’ and the measuring and evaluation frameworks used by public institutions to determine how public funds are used for climate finance.

This course provides the fundamentals needed for analyzing climate datasets and the basics of decision making under uncertain climate conditions. During this course, students will firstly develop an understanding of the main concepts of data science, including specialized terminology and standard techniques for the collection, processing, analysis and interpretation of data. They will develop an awareness of the tools and frameworks used in professional environments in order to assist data science tasks. There is also a focus on gaining an understanding of key concepts surrounding the digitalisation of energy, including the Internet of Things, machine learning, AI and blockchain, and their applications in the context of the energy sector. This course will secondly introduce participants to spatial analysis using GIS software; Introduce the theoretical problems associated with capturing, handling and analysing spatial data; Explore these issues through the practical use of ArcGIS, a widely used commercially available GIS software package.

The Climate Solutions and Innovation course is designed and delivered by climate change experts and educators. It tackles the biggest challenge of climate change by giving each of us the knowledge and tools we need to make a real difference. Designed to be accessible and engaging throughout, it provides the facts you need to know about what climate change is, and the solutions you need to know so you can be part of fighting it. Look around you and imagine the place you are right now three decades in the future. The wood, glass, cement, steel, and plastics, the electricity you use, and the food you eat—all of it could be made and transported in completely new ways with little to no impact on our climate. In this course, students will learn about emerging solutions for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and debate the best applications for green technologies.

This course provides students a foundation in managing and analyzing financial strategy for climate risk and adaptation in companies. The first part of the course focuses on building skills – how to craft a decarbonization strategy. Through the study of practice on real-world, students will ascertain the effectiveness of company’s decarbonization strategy. The course then turns to explore climate risks and resilience metrics, looking at how to define metrics that are measurable, computable and comparable, which include both mean and variability, recent past, current trends, and projection of risks. Possible indicators to measure climate finance potential include financial and impact-driven ones. A very restricted focus on monetary indicators might not create the right incentives to support a mix of projects contributing to transformational change. This course will also explore the measurement and disclosure of climate risk as to the first step to developing strategies to address risk as part of all investment decisions. Course learning will be supplemented with exposure to industry speakers from the local financial industry.