ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-2020

The course aims to explain the structures of the policies and diplomacy to tackle climate change and the ways that international agreements are conducted. The course material is divided into two parts.

The first part examines the emergence of climate change on the international agenda and explores possible solutions to tackle climate change. It focuses on the major actors in international negotiations, the evolvement of international regulation and on contemporary issues closely linked to combating climate change, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and climate dispute resolution.

The second part focuses on an overview of the basic concepts needed to understand European climate diplomacy. Then, it examines the so-called policy cycle, so that through the example of the EU, that it has developed the most comprehensive system for combating climate change globally, so that students can get a complete picture of how a policy and a legal framework are shaped at the international level.

During the course, students will have the opportunity to get in touch with how the negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change work, as well as they will prepare policy papers relevant to the course's subject to be presented during the lectures.

1. Climate change: What is the problem and how it emerged in the international agenda?

2. International climate change regulations: A historical background

3. Major actors of climate diplomacy

4. Challenges of implementation in international climate regulations 

5. Settling climate change disputes

6. EU climate change regulation and the development of EU climate diplomacy 

7. Moving the EU climate diplomacy forward: The EU within the UNFCCC COP

8. The EU Emissions Trade System

9. SDGs and climate diplomacy: The role of the EU

10. Climate diplomacy policy-making: EU-international level interactions

11. Climate diplomacy agenda-setting: EU-international level interactions 

12. Climate diplomacy decision-making: EU-international level interactions

13. EU's normative power and climate diplomacy: Influencing international law-making

14. Presentation of the policy papers

The course is taught every Monday, 15.00 to 18.00, during the Winter Semester (30/09/2019-14/02/2019), in the Politou room, Solonos 57, Athens.