The Ethics of Climate Change

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Undertake independent work, including identifying and using appropriate resources.
• Work effectively to deadlines.
• Express views clearly and concisely.
• Contribute to discussion in a critical but dispassionate way.
• Take notes from talks and written materials.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Ethical questions raised by climate change.
• Questions in political philosophy raised by climate change.
• The arguments for and against different answers to those questions.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate influential moral and political claims about how the climate crisis should be addressed by both individuals and institutions.
• Articulate and defend your own views about climate justice and the obligations of individuals to address the climate crisis
• Recognise connections between moral philosophical questions regarding climate change and other areas of study such as climate science, economics and politics

The syllabus may vary from year to year. Topics may include:

• What moral obligations citizens have to address the climate crisis
• How the costs of addressing the climate crisis should be distributed
• Climate change and inter-generational justice
• Climate change and collective obligations
• Moral theories and the ethics of climate change
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• The importance of the climate crisis relative to other moral and political issues

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• In-class discussion
• One-on-one consultation with module co-ordinator

Learning activities include:

• Attending classes
• Contribution to class discussion
• Doing independent research for and writing assessed work

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Essay proposal

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback:
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.