Climate change and the policies adopted in response to it raise many normative questions. Climate ethics attempts to give answers to these questions. The text-centered seminar provides an introduction to this (unsurprisingly) comparatively novel sub-field of applied ethics by way of a close reading of some of the most widely discussed contributions (articles and book chapters).

Preparatory Reading

Moellendorf, Darrel (2015): Climate Change Justice. In: Philosophy Compass, 10 (3), 173-186.

Assignments and Credits

6 CP (TP 1, GS): term paper (15-20 pp.) or oral exam (30 min.)

3 CP (TP 2, GS): presentation (15 min.) with written elaboration (5 pp.) or short term paper (8-10 pp.)

The seminar will focus on genocide in global perspective by tracing an intellectual history of the concept, its origins and function, as well as highlighting critical movements in the field of Genocide Studies with attention to colonial violence and other modes of civilian destruction.

This seminar tackles the urgency of climate action from a fresh perspective. Starting from recent response options released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it provides lessons learned from policy analysis and it invites you looking forward. Together, we will enable learning about evidence, analytical tools, principles, and perspectives for strategies. Integrating climate policy (SDG13) with a range of SDGs (e.g. SDG 2, 6, 7, 12, 14) is seen as pivotal to overcome narrow responses and engage actors. This is embedded in a global governance approach that seeks to balance the need for multilateral agreements with the opportunities of bottom-up multi-stakeholder approaches with regional clubs. A focus will be on the EU and its member states. It is thus system thinking and transformations driven by new alliances that are considered key to future skillsets for a next generation of leaders (i.e. You!).

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

1) What is climate change. A really simple guide provided by BBC here
2) IPCC WG III: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, THE international scientific body dealing with the issue, has been providing tangible response options in 2022 for policy makers here
3) Chatham House, the No 1 world’s policy think tank, provides a range of analyses on the topic here
4) Youth in Action, voices from all over the world hosted by the UN here

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

The course offers two options: 3CP will be given for regular attendance and a presentation, preferably as part of a group presentation; 6CP will be given if an additional essay will be submitted.