K6ET 2025 - Climate Change and Urban Policy Choices
It is far from trivial for urban decision-makers to account for climate concerns in their decisions. First, the effectiveness of potential urban environmental policies is difficult to assess. The ways urban policies may impact GHG emissions or our vulnerability to climate change are numerous and complex. Various urban policies may interact, leading to synergies or trade-offs which are not always clearly understood. Second, climate action does not happen in a vacuum, but in a political context with pre-existing issues, social tensions, and policy objectives. The main objective of this course is therefore double: 1) To understand the main challenges that metropolitan regions are facing in relation to climate change 2) How to critically assess the potential responses to these challenges.
Vincent VIGUIÉ
Cours magistral seul
English
A good understanding of the physical mechanisms behind climate change, the origin of greenhouse gases emissions, and the main consequences of climate changes, will be a great help to fully benefit from this course. A self-assessment quiz will be sent to you, to help you assess your knowledge level on these questions. See recommended bibliography if you look for information.
Spring 2023-2024
10% of the grade: participation (oral participation during the sessions) + quiz at the beginning of each session.
45% of the grade: group presentation about a case study.
45% of the grade: final examination.
12 x 2 hours sessions
For each session, except the first one (introduction) and the special session about “negotiating for the environment”, the work will be mainly asynchronous. The lecture will take the form of a 20 to 40 min video to be watched in advance, and the duration of the first hour of the session will be devoted to discussions around it and the second to a presentation by a group of students.
A good understanding of the physical mechanisms behind climate change, the origin of greenhouse gases emissions, and the main consequences of climate changes, will be a great help to fully benefit from this course. A self-assessment quiz will be sent to
If you are in France, it is worth trying to participate to a Fresque du climat event. It is also worth watching this introductory lecture by Valérie Masson Delmotte to the convention citoyenne du climat [in French].
IPCC, ed. 2014. Chapter 12: Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning. In Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W., Romero-Lankao, P., Mehrotra, S., Dhakal, S., & Ali Ibrahim, S. (Eds.). (2018). Climate Change and Cities: Second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network. Cambridge University Press. https://uccrn.ei.col
Here are a few ideas of websites with basic information (many other exist) : • https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/climate-change-faqs/ • https://www.campaigncc.org/climate_change/introduction • https://www.nytimes.com/article/climate-chan
Finally, for more information, here are the main reference documents (difficult to read in their entirety, but useful to look for specific questions) : IPCC, ed. 2014. Chapter 8 : Urban Areas. In Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabil