F1ES 4515 - The Global Politics of Financing Low-Carbon & Climate-Resilient Development.

The transition to avert the climate crisis requires enormous investments, both for mitigating climate change and for adapting to its impacts. Finance is therefore a central issue in climate policy. Although the importance of finance was recognised early on in the UN climate negotiations, the role of finance initially remained limited to a general pledge by developed countries to support developing countries. This role has expanded tremendously over time: first by setting a target to mobilise US$100 billion per year by 2020 and to mobilise private co-finance, and currently by calls for a transformation of the entire financial system. This course explains this development and its relevant actors and discusses political, financial, economic and fairness aspects and implications. Finally, we will explore the expanding role of finance in addressing the climate crisis in the years to come.

Learning Outcomes

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• By the end of the course, you understand and are able to explain the central role of finance in addressing the climate crisis

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• You will understand the interests of various stakeholders, including developed- and developing countries and actors in the financial system

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• You understand and are able to explain the changing role of the UN climate negotiations in addressing the climate crisis through finance

Professional Skills

Communication skills; critical thinking; building abilities and intelligence through effort, learning, and persistence.

Pedagogical and feedback format.

The course will include 11 interactive sessions, alternating introductory lectures with extensive discussions of academic papers, reports and newsarticles (these newsarticles may be provided on an ad hoc basis). Formative feedback to the students will be provided throughout the course when students present papers, act as respondents (i.e. reflecting on another student's presentation) and participate in the discussions. Finally, students will write a short essay on a related topic of choice that will also be graded and provided feedback upon.

Assessment

Final grades will be calculated as follows:

• Essay 40%
• Oral presentation (20-30%)*;
• Two oral responses (20-30%)*,
• Participation in the group work and the class discussions 10%

*In principle, each student will do one presentation and 2 responses. However, this could change depending on the number of students.

Course workload

• In Class Presence: 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: appr. 73 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 3 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: appr. 35 hours a semester
• Other: preparing presentations/responses: 15 hours a semester