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.

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 sustainability and climate change mitigation, both within their organizations, in their various fields of action, and in society at large. To conduct, through the implementation of methodologies, studies and research that allow for a deeper understanding of related topics 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.

The academic program is delivered in a virtual learning environment, which provides relevant resources for autonomous and meaningful learning. It has an organized structure in 15 modules sequential, plus 5 didactic workshops, whose total duration is 15 weeks (including the final project and the preparation section to learn how to use the platform).

• Introduction to the climate crisis
• Legal framework for climate change
• International climate governance and policy
• The human dimension of climate change: Climate migrations
• Natural resources and sustainability
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• The urgency of an environmental ethic
• The value of technology in the ecological transition
• Indigenous peoples and the rights of nature
• Environmental economic theory and the transition to low-carbon economies
• Climate action and progress in climate negotiations
• Mountain ecosystems: shepherds and the management of wetlands and grasslands for climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Climate Finance: Financing instruments for emissions reduction