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Prof Kai Spiekermann

This course is available on the MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation and MSc in Political Theory. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and priority is given to students on the MSc Political Theory. In previous years we have been able to provide places for most applicants, but that may not continue to be the case.

Some prior training in political theory, ethics, or related fields is recommended.

This course considers the problem of climate change from a political-philosophical perspective, drawing primarily on contemporary analytical political philosophy, political theory, and environmental ethics, but with cross-disciplinary input from the natural and social sciences. Some key questions will be abstract and theoretical, including: What kind of problem is climate change? How do we value nature? How ought we to distribute the costs of climate? How are the injustices of climate change related to other historical injustice? What do we owe future generations? At the same time, the course also challenges us to think about the application of theories from philosophy and the social sciences, leading to questions like: How can we improve the knowledge about climate change? How do we motivate citizens and states to reduce emissions? How do we decide what to preserve for future generations? Is civil or uncivil disobedience a promising route to bring about social change? Which democratic institutions might support effective climate policies?

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling 30 hours in the Winter Term. There will be a reading week in WT Week 6.

Students will submit a short formative essay (up to 1500 words) and will be given feedback on this before submitting their assessed coursework.

John Broome (2012) Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World, New York (W.W. Norton);

Stephen Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson and Henry Shue, eds. (2010) Climate Ethics: Essential Readings, Oxford (Oxford University Press);

Denis G. Arnold, ed. (2011) The ethics of global climate change, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press);

Stephen M. Gardiner (2011) A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change, Oxford (OUP);

Jeremy Moss, ed. (2015). Climate Change and Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;

Simon Caney (2020). “Climate Justice”, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-climate/;

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021-2) Sixth Assessment Report, Available at www.ipcc.ch.

Essay (100%, 4000 words).