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2024/2025  KAN-CCMVI2141U  Fast-Tracking Business and Societal Climate Mitigation and Resilience

English Title
Fast-Tracking Business and Societal Climate Mitigation and Resilience

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 30
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and GMA (CM)
Course coordinator
  • Maria Figueroa - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
For academic questions related to the course, please contact course responsible Maria Figueroa (mfi.msc@cbs.dk).
Main academic disciplines
  • CSR and sustainability
  • Globalisation and international business
  • Innovation
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 07/11/2024

Relevant links

Learning objectives
  • describe and critically discuss climate mitigation and resilience interventions for business and society and the main issues on technologies, institutions, and interactions between actors involved
  • knowledge and understanding of theories and concepts that are relevant to the analysis of climate mitigation and resilience interventions of business and society
  • ability to reflexively link the theories, tools, frameworks, and empirical material with relevance to the context and actors involved.
Course prerequisites
Completed Bachelor degree or equivalent. Master University students from other universities can enroll at CBS via exchange credit. Bachelors students
can enroll with approval from course coordinator
Examination
Fast-Tracking Business and Societal Climate Mitigation and Resilience:
Exam ECTS 7.5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Project
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer and Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The individual project should analyse a climate or resilience intervention following a systemic approach covered in the course. The essay should discuss relevant facts and context of the selected climate action or intervention, identify the key challenges, stakeholders and interactions; justify the choice of approaches and relevant data; use the chosen approaches to analyze and critically reflect upon the approaches taken and whether the intervention fit the problem at hand.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Climate change and Biodiversity loss are the most pressing environmental challenges facing business and society globally. Businesses, governments, and civil society achieved a momentous commitment in 2015 with the Paris Agreement, where they agreed to bring to near zero the amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted globally by 2050. The global effort to reduce carbon emissions requires immediate and unprecedented action to shift business, economic, and social activities away from fossil fuels and other sources of carbon emissions. Simultaneously, it's essential to build resilience against the damaging effects of climate change. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for all businesses and society.

 

There is an increasing need, and demand for, managers, innovators, and employees who understand the opportunities, risks and challenges of advancing climate action and can operate in multi-disciplinary teams. They need to be prepared to interact beyond their fields so they can bridge the gaps between science, technology, social and environmental justice and economics of business and societal climate interventions.

Climate action requires an understanding of the status of technological opportunities; challenges of societal transformations, the role of nature and non-technological approaches, and societal and individual willingness to accept these actions. Clear communication of risks and opportunities to business and the public or the political system is lacking; policy relevance may be unappreciated when exclusive focus is placed on the next technological innovations making the transition financially or socially unfeasible.

 

This course builds deep interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and seeks to strengthen students' capabilities to work toward filling these gaps. It is particularly suited to cultivate interaction between students with different skills and backgrounds. The aim is to provide a new generation of specialist professionals with the relevant skills to properly operate and communicate in multi-disciplinary teams that seek to tackle and find innovative solutions to take action in the task of climate mitigation, adaptation, resiliency and sustainability. The course includes lectures from faculty from partner universities, business actors, and active civil society participants. The class emphasizes group work, discussion, case presentations, and hands-on exercises.

 

In relation to Nordic Nine

The Fast-tracking Climate Mitigation and Resilience course supports the Nordic Nine capabilities by teaching analytical approaches to understand humanity’s challenges, climate change specifically, and how they may be resolved (NN3). The course provides the means to explain the technological, social justice and politico-economic structures that replicate prosperity and inequality over generations (NN7). The stress in the course on climate-vulnerable and climate-forcing assets also helps students examine how business and local communities create value from global connections (NN9).

Description of the teaching methods
The course will be conducted as on-campus lectures and exercises, group work, and simulation exercises. Students are expected to participate actively in class and group discussions.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback is offered as follows: 1. in class usually at the beginning and end of each lecture there will be an open Q&A session; in addition to feedback offered in interaction with students during class and following group exercises during class time 2. as students work in group or toward their written report. 3. during office hours.
Student workload
lectures and group work in class 30 hours
in-class project supervision 6 hours
class preparation and final project work 170 hours
Further Information

6-week course.

 

Preliminary assignment: The course coordinator uploads information about the Preliminary Assignment on Canvas at the end of May. It is expected that students participate but the assignment is without independent assessment and grading.

 

During the course: Students will be working in groups in small assignments to examine specific climate mitigation and resiliency interventions with focus in self selected topical area or sectors, locality or region. It can be in connection with a product, a company case, or a country or regional analysis. The in class group work is intended to help students select a potential project angle for the individual final essay. 

 

 

Expected literature
  • Åhman, Max, Lars J. Nilsson, and Bengt Johansson. 2017. “Global Climate Policy and Deep Decarbonization of Energy-Intensive Industries.” Climate Policy 17 (5): 634–49. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​14693062.2016.1167009.
  • Altieri, Katye E., Hilton Trollip, Tara Caetano, Alison Hughes, Bruno Merven, and Harald Winkler. 2016. “Achieving Development and Mitigation Objectives through a Decarbonization Development Pathway in South Africa.” Climate Policy 16 (sup1): S78–91. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​14693062.2016.1150250.
  • Ambrose, Hanjiro, Alissa Kendall, Mark Lozano, Sadanand Wachche, and Lew Fulton. 2020. “Trends in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Future Light Duty Electric Vehicles.” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 81 (April): 102287. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1016/​j.trd.2020.102287.
  • Bai, Xuemei, Richard J. Dawson, Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Gian C. Delgado, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Shobhakar Dhakal, David Dodman, et al. 2018. “Six Research Priorities for Cities and Climate Change.” Nature 555 (7694): 23–25. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1038/​d41586-018-02409-z.
  • Bauer, Gordon, Cheng Zheng, Jeffery Buyers Greenblatt, Susan Shaheen, and Daniel Kammen. 2020. “On-Demand Automotive Fleet Electrification Can Catalyze Global Transportation Decarbonization and Smart Urban Mobility.” Environmental Science & Technology, May. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1021/​acs.est.0c01609.
  • Bjørn, A., Hauschild, M.Z. (2013) Absolute versus Relative Environmental Sustainability. Journal of Industrial Ecology 17: 321-332.
  • Coxhead, Ian, and Corbett Grainger. 2018. “Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform in the Developing World: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why?” Asian Development Review 35 (2): 180–203. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1162/​adev_a_00119.
  • Creutzig, Felix, Leila Niamir, Xuemei Bai, Max Callaghan, Jonathan Cullen, Julio Díaz-José, Maria Figueroa, et al. 2021. “Demand-Side Solutions to Climate Change Mitigation Consistent with High Levels of Well-Being.” Nature Climate Change, November. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1038/​s41558-021-01219-y.
  • Dhakal, Shobhakar, Jan Minx, F. L. Toth, A Abdel-Aziz, Maria J. Figueroa Meza, Klaus Hubacek, I. Jonckheere, et al. 2022. “Emissions Trends and Drivers. In.” In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (Eds.)]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. In press. https:/​/​www.ipcc.ch/​report/​ar6/​wg3/​.
  • Fishman, Tomer, Niko Heeren, Stefan Pauliuk, Peter Berrill, Qingshi Tu, Paul Wolfram, and Edgar G. Hertwich. 2021. “A Comprehensive Set of Global Scenarios of Housing, Mobility, and Material Efficiency for Material Cycles and Energy Systems Modeling.” Journal of Industrial Ecology 25 (2): 305–20. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1111/​jiec.13122.
  • IEA. 2021. “Net Zero by 2050 - A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.” Paris: International Energy Agency. https:/​/​www.iea.org/​reports/​net-zero-by-2050.
  • Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Aalto University, and D-mat ltd. 2019. “1.5-Degree Lifestyles: Targets and Options for Reducing Lifestyle Carbon Footprints.” Hayama, Japan: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. https:/​/​www.iges.or.jp/​en/​publication_documents/​pub/​technicalreport/​en/​6719/​15_Degree_Lifestyles_MainReport.pdf.
  • Lamb, William F., Michael Grubb, Francesca Diluiso, and Jan C. Minx. 2021. “Countries with Sustained Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions: An Analysis of Trends and Progress by Sector.” Climate Policy 0 (0): 1–17. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​14693062.2021.1990831.
  • Lamb, W., Wiedmann, T., Pongratz, J., Andrew, R., Crippa, M., Olivier,J., Dominik Wiedenhofer, et al. 2021. “A Review of Trends and Drivers of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector from 1990 to 2018.” Environmental Research Letters, March. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1748-9326/​abee4e.
  • McCollum, David L, Luis Gomez Echeverri, Sebastian Busch, Shonali Pachauri, Simon Parkinson, Joeri Rogelj, Volker Krey, et al. 2018. “Connecting the Sustainable Development Goals by Their Energy Inter-Linkages.” Environmental Research Letters 13 (3): 033006. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1748-9326/​aaafe3.
  • Millward-Hopkins, Joel, Julia K. Steinberger, Narasimha D. Rao, and Yannick Oswald. 2020. “Providing Decent Living with Minimum Energy: A Global Scenario.” Global Environmental Change 65 (November): 102168. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1016/​j.gloenvcha.2020.102168.
  • Rajper, Sarmad Zaman, and Johan Albrecht. 2020. “Prospects of Electric Vehicles in the Developing Countries: A Literature Review.” Sustainability 12 (5): 1906. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.3390/​su12051906.
  • Rao, Narasimha D, and Shonali Pachauri. 2017. “Energy Access and Living Standards: Some Observations on Recent Trends.” Environmental Research Letters 12 (2): 025011. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1088/​1748-9326/​aa5b0d.
  • Seto, Karen C., Galina Churkina, Angel Hsu, Meredith Keller, Peter W.G. Newman, Bo Qin, and Anu Ramaswami. 2021. “From Low- to Net-Zero Carbon Cities: The Next Global Agenda.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 46 (1): null. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1146/​annurev-environ-050120-113117.
  • Te, Qi, and Chen Lianghua. 2020. “Carsharing: Mitigation Strategy for Transport-Related Carbon Footprint.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 25 (5): 791–818. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1007/​s11027-019-09893-2.
  • Vujcic, Maja, Jelena Tomicevic-Dubljevic, Mihailo Grbic, Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, Olivera Vukovic, and Oliver Toskovic. 2017. “Nature Based Solution for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being in Urban Areas.” Environmental Research 158: 385–92. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1016/​j.envres.2017.06.030.

Wiedmann, Thomas, Manfred Lenzen, Lorenz T. Keyßer, and Julia K. Steinberger. 2020. “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence.” Nature Communications 11 (1): 3107. https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1038/​s41467-020-16941-y.

Last updated on 07/11/2024