• To provide students with a view of the individual components of the Earth System and how they interact on contemporary and geological timescales.
• To introduce students to the drivers of climate change and methods used by climate scientists to detect and predict climate change in the Earth System
• To introduce students to the concept of climate change mitigation, drawing on key and recent activities related to the UNFCC process, the Paris Agreement, and the IPCC assessment process

(LO1) Students will learn how components of the earth system function and interact, with focus on timescales and feedbacks

(LO2) Students will understand how perturbations to a component of the earth system has have knock on effects, with a focus on the climate change drivers.

(LO3) Students will understand the how the impacts of climatenchange on different components of the earth system are assessed and quantified, including their link to societal activity.

(LO4) Students will gain insight into climate change mitigation, with focus on key international initiatives and their communication in the media.

(S1) Students will develop skills in effective presentation and communication of scientific concepts, e.g. visually appealing poster presentations and written essays.

(S2) Students will develop skills in reading scientific literature, and how to appropriately reference source material in their own work.

(S3) Students will develop their skills in assessing the value of different source material, i.e. what bias it might have and whether it is trustworthy.

The following material will be covered in 10 weeks:
Weeks 1-3
1. Paleoclimate – the fundamentals behind how we know the climate changes, using the geological record. This will outline how the earth, oceans and atmosphere interact as a climate system, and explain isotope proxies for temperature and greenhouse gas emissions, e.g. stable oxygen and carbon isotopes.

Weeks 4-6
2. Assessment of present the day climate , current trends in warming and emissions and future projections of global warming impacts on the earth system. Here the role of human activity and its attribution will be introduced and the way in which climate projections are used to assess potential impacts (e.g on society and land and ocean ecosystems) will be explored using IPCC assessment reports. Students will also learn how IPCC reports are assembled and approved.

Weeks 7-9
3. Explore a range of climate change mitigation strategies. This will introduce students to the c omplexities of the 'green transition' including: net-zero, Green green power (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and nuclear), geoengineering, carbon capture and storage, and designing low-carbon societies. The link between these approaches and political and economic treaty ambitions will be appraised.

Week 10
4. Communication of climate change. This final part will cover the issues surrounding the public communication and debate on climate change. There will be a general focus on what the science tells us versus what is reported. Topics will explore media bias, misinformation and lobbying, and the role of governments in the take up of climate change issues

Teaching method 1: E-lecture
Two 1hr E-lectures per week

Teaching method 2: Workshops
2 h workshop per week to discuss scientific papers and reports, explore key concepts in climate change and mitigation or perform group work to solve problems.