Advanced Diploma in Climate Change: Ethical Challenges for Public Policies

This Higher Diploma has been developed jointly by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences- FLACSO-Chile, the Latin American Council of Social Sciences – CLACSO, and the Grand Lodge of Chile-GLCH, with the participation of professionals dedicated to the subject of climate change and ecological transition.

The serious and evident climate crisis is the result of global climate change, generated by both natural causes and processes, as well as human actions. This change is evident in shifts, at different scales and timescales, in climatic parameters such as temperature, precipitation, droughts, and other extreme natural phenomena, with a direct and often severe impact on the planet's ecosystems and, consequently, on society and its economic systems.

Since 1992, climate change has become a global concern, primarily due to the scientific evidence that identified it. The United Nations embraced this line of work and established the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The first Conference of the Parties (COP) was held in 1995, paving the way for COP 21, which took place in Paris in 2015. The negotiations at COP 21 marked a milestone with the signing of the Paris Agreement, which solidified a long-term vision for the world's nations regarding this urgent issue. To date, 26 climate summits have been held.

The Paris Agreement establishes, as its main objective, within a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change, keeping global warming well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1,5°C.

The actions of States (or Parties) to address this reality have resulted in doing everything within their power, through nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and redoubling their efforts in the coming years to move closer to the main objective.

Whether COP26 was a success is under debate and will remain so for some time. The Glasgow Climate Pact that emerged from the summit includes a commitment to double adaptation funding and calls on countries to submit more ambitious climate commitments by 2022. The meeting, which lasted more than two weeks, was seen as a critical moment for climate commitments and action, especially since wealthier nations failed to raise the $100 billion in annual climate funds they had pledged to vulnerable countries, and the gap to stay below 1,5°C widened.

The Glasgow Climate Change Conference finally materialized after a year's postponement and strong restrictive measures, where the Parties were able to adopt the Glasgow Climate Pact: a series of broad-coverage decisions that provide an overall political narrative of the Conference of the Parties (COP).

In turn, and for the first time in the process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a reference was agreed to the phasing out of coal-fired power and the elimination of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

Before the COP26 meeting, 153 countries, representing 49% of global greenhouse gas emissions, had updated their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. According to estimates in the Secretariat's NDC Synthesis Report, these would lead to 2,7°C of global warming by 2100. Meanwhile, developed countries had also published a roadmap admitting they would not reach the $100 billion per year pledged for the 2020 climate finance target, and likely would not achieve it before 2023.

Against this backdrop, the World Leaders Summit brought together more than 120 Heads of State and Government from Saturday, November 30, to Monday, December 1. There were powerful calls for greater ambition, and several developed countries made new financial pledges. The UK Presidency announced that $800 million had been pledged for adaptation during COP 26, including the first US contribution to the Adaptation Fund.

Therefore, to participate in and understand the rapid process of negotiations and important discussions that will translate into policies and plans for every government in the world, and to contribute constructively, it is essential not only to stay informed but also to become educated on these issues that will shape the future of nations. Countries need people with solid training who are capable of leading the way toward sustainability. 

General Purpose

This program of study aims to empower students to actively participate in the discussion, reflection, design, and development of initiatives and proposals that seek actions or mechanisms to understand and ultimately address the environmental crisis. This is achieved by providing them with knowledge, experiences, and tools that enable them to grasp key concepts related to the environmental problem, the ongoing climate crisis, and the urgent ecological transition, as well as the importance of achieving sustainability in each of the activities they undertake in their respective study, work, or reflection groups.

Specific objectives

• To understand the fundamental, theoretical and practical concepts related to climate change and its effects worldwide.
• To delve deeper into the discussions and analyses currently taking place at the regional and global levels, with a special emphasis on the ethical dimension of the problems associated with climate change.
• Analyze the agreements and actions being reached and implemented in the countries leading these processes, as well as the Latin American situation.
• Studying the development, design and implementation of all types of actions and policies, from the local level and economic agents, to public policies that seek sustainability.
• To train students to be drivers of change and innovation in matters of sustainability and climate change mitigation, both within their organizations, in their different areas of action or in society itself.
• To carry out, through the implementation of methodologies, studies and research that allow for a deeper understanding of the topics related to or those that mitigate the effects of climate change;
• To lead the various actions that will be required to achieve the objectives associated with the ecological transition.

This study program is geared towards all individuals interested in the topic of climate change, its impacts and how to address it; workers and professionals in the public and private sectors; for-profit or non-profit organizations; individual or community-based ventures; academics, intellectuals, independent professionals, and social leaders of any origin, group or collective whose commitment to intergenerational climate responsibility compels them to want to delve deeper or gain a general overview of the climate crisis we are experiencing, from an approach that originates in the social sciences and extends to public policies and programs and all types of initiatives with an ethical environmental focus.

• Diana Guzman (The Climate Reality Project)  
• Pablo Sepúlveda (Latin American Energy Dialogue) 
• Augusto Castro (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) 
• Cristian Mosella (Latin American Platform for Sustainable Leadership) 
• Marcos Gibson (University of Buenos Aires) 
• Constanza Troppa (University of La Frontera, Chile) 
• Gabriela Soto (University of Queensland, Australia) 
• Erika Pires Ramos (South American Network for Environmental Migration and Latin American Observatory on Human Mobility, Climate Change and Disasters, Brazil) 
• Olga Alcaraz (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) 
• Ximena Apestegui (London School of Economics and Political Science) 
• Magaly Beltrán (University of San Simón, Bolivia) 
• rodrigo andrade (FLACSO Chile and GLCH Chile)

The academic program is delivered in a virtual learning environment, which provides relevant resources for autonomous and meaningful learning. It is structured into 12 sequential modules , plus 5 didactic workshops, with a total duration of 15 weeks (including the final project and the preparatory section for learning how to use the platform).

Payment method – Climate Change Diploma