PG Cert Climate Change and Development (online 1 year)

This module explores how climate change - and the politics and discourses around it - is reshaping global social and political dynamics through low-carbon transitions. You’ll engage with key debates in low-carbon development and examine how these intersect with power, poverty, inequality, social justice, and sustainable development. Taking a multidisciplinary, multi-actor approach, the module investigates how strategies are implemented across sectors and regions, and the roles of states, industry, grassroots groups, and social movements in shaping and contesting climate narratives. Through research-based activities, applied learning, and peer feedback, you’ll develop skills in critical analysis, evidence-based argumentation, and communication, enabling you to evaluate low-carbon strategies and formulate well-reasoned positions. By the end, you’ll be equipped to engage with real-world climate challenges and contribute to equitable, sustainable, and effective low-carbon development solutions, building employability skills in research, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem-solving.

This module examines the uneven and far-reaching impacts of climate change on communities, ecosystems, and economies, and explores how adaptation responses can shape development outcomes. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives - including climate science, development studies, political ecology, and social justice - you’ll analyse how extreme weather, sea-level rise, and shifting climate patterns affect populations and sectors across diverse contexts. The module critically examines adaptation as both a technical and socio-political process, exploring social, ecosystem, financial, and technological approaches while asking whose knowledge counts and who benefits or loses. Using global case studies, you’ll investigate how adaptation strategies can reinforce or challenge existing inequalities. Through applied learning, you’ll develop skills in vulnerability assessment, adaptation planning, critical analysis, and research, equipping you to address climate impacts thoughtfully and contribute to equitable, sustainable solutions while building employability skills in communication, ethical reasoning, digital literacy, and evidence-based decision-making.