4.7
stars
486 ratings

Harald Winkler

41,467 already enrolled

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Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries

University of Cape Town

About this Course

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This course challenges you to consider how one might lift societies out of poverty while also mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. We explore the inherent complexity of developing country governments wanting to grow their economies in a climate friendly way. You will be introduced to an approach with which to address this challenge. The approach consists of a facilitated process whereby academic researchers and high-level influential actors within society co-produce knowledge. You will track this process in four Latin American countries - Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and South Africa. You will hear from various professionals about their contexts and the different challenges and opportunities the process includes.
This course will cover topics such as facilitation process techniques, energy modeling, scenario building, innovation and policy making. You will have the opportunity to respond to these topics with ideas and reflection from your own context. Whether you are a climate change practitioner, work in development or are simply curious about how climate mitigation is understood, this course will give you insights into the complexity of how countries from the South pursue development goals while addressing climate mitigation.

The course is free to enroll and take. You will be offered the option of purchasing a certificate of completion, which you become eligible for if you successfully complete the course requirements.  This can be an excellent way of staying motivated!  Financial Aid is also available.

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Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

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Intermediate Level

Approx. 18 hours to complete

English

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Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

Approx. 18 hours to complete

English

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Instructor

Instructor rating

4.71/5 (118 Ratings)

Harald Winkler

Professor

Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town

41,467 Learners

1 Course

Offered by

University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town is the oldest university in South Africa and is one of the leading research universities on the African continent. UCT has over 25 000 students, of whom 30% are postgraduate students. We offer degrees in six faculties: Commerce, Engineering & the Built Environment, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, and Science. We pride ourself on our diverse student body, which reflects the many cultures and backgrounds of the region. We welcome international students and are currently home to thousands of international students from over 100 countries. UCT has a tradition of academic excellence that is respected world-wide and is privileged to have more than 30 A-rated researchers on our staff, all of whom are recognised as world leaders in their field. Our aim is to ensure that our research contributes to the public good through sharing knowledge for the benefit of society. Past students include five Nobel Laureates – Max Theiler, Alan Cormack, Sir Aaron Klug, Ralph Bunche and, most recently, J M Coetzee.

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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating98%(5,874 ratings)

Week

Week 1

3 hours to complete

Complexity of climate change mitigation

Climate change and development both involve many complex problems. Each are 'wicked' problems, meaning they defy easy solutions. Tackling both development and climate change together is a 'super-wicked' problem. But we must start by taking a first step to responding to this 'super-wicked' problem. To do this we’ll share our experiments drawing particularly on the MAPS community, which includes Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and South Africa.

3 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 29 min), 4 readings, 2 quizzes

Week

Week 2

2 hours to complete

Mandating and co-production of knowledge

Our approach to mitigation and development is essentially a process that spurs change within a system. The premise is that change happens through co-production of knowledge, which in turn encourages action by actors in a system. We ask the questions: what is the best way to start such an intervention? What could the intervention look like? What are the options for the process design? This week we review the role a Scenario Building Team has to play in supporting knowledge generation.

2 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 52 min), 1 reading, 2 quizzes

8 videos

Introduction: change through co-production of knowledge9m

Motivating change agents in a system6m

Designing the scenario building process8m

Building scenarios for mitigating climate change13m

Process design in Brazil2m

Using the Chaordic Stepping Stones process7m

Reflection2m

What's next1m

1 reading

Week 2: Resources10m

2 practice exercises

Week 2 Practice Quiz30m

Week 2: Mandating and co-production of knowledge30m

Week

Week 3

3 hours to complete

Mitigation action research and modelling

Knowledge generated through research can effect change. We describe the models and tools that are available to support the generation of this knowledge. Apart from knowledge related to greenhouse gas mitigation and the costs thereof, we are interested in the positive and negative developmental impacts of moving to a low carbon economy. Emissions and costs are relatively easy to quantify but developmental impacts are less easily quantified. This week, we explore how this challenge can be addressed.

3 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 46 min), 1 reading, 2 quizzes

Week

Week 4

3 hours to complete

Minding the mitigation gap

What happens when your best efforts are not good enough? We will look at the ‘gaps’ between where we would like to be and where we are.The direction emission trends are headed is a function of everything put into the model (such as population, growth and GDP, and technology). Yet what is required by science is driven by considerations such as how we need to reduce emissions to keep temperature rises below two degrees. This week, in exploring some of the potential reasons for this gap we consider technical reasons and other pushbacks, like vested-interests, political or inherent human behaviour.

3 hours to complete

9 videos (Total 65 min), 2 readings, 2 quizzes

9 videos

Introduction: mind the gap6m

Defining the mitigation gap: global carbon budget8m

Developing national required-by-science and equity scenarios8m

Realising the mitigation gap scenario results8m

Reasons for the gap: technical perspective7m

Reasons for the gap: political perspective (part 1)6m

Reasons for the gap: political perspective (part 2)10m

Reflection: learning from failures5m

What's next?2m

2 readings

Technical and political examples10m

Week 4: Resources10m

2 practice exercises

Week 4 Practice Quiz30m

Week 4: Minding the mitigation gap30m

Week

Week 5

3 hours to complete

Responding to mitigation challenges

There are limitations within our existing toolsets and ways of thinking how we might address the mitigation gap. We need to look more closely at the interface of economic and development pathways and to question the way in which climate change mitigation professionals are approaching this huge and complex climate and development problem. Responses to these challenges include linking of economic and mitigation model to better understand the interconnectedness of mitigation policies and economic development, and involves out-of-the-box thinking when imagining climate and development solutions of the future. This week we hope to inspire innovations and responses to challenges in the climate mitigation and development community.

3 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 46 min), 3 readings, 2 quizzes

Week

Week 6

4 hours to complete

Bridges to domestic and international policy

4 hours to complete

11 videos (Total 67 min), 3 readings, 3 quizzes

11 videos

Introduction: MAPS impacts on public policy1m

Bridge from knowledge to domestic policy8m

Knowledge on socio-economic implications of mitigation6m

Example on how MAPS Chile results were used for local pollutants domestic policy5m

Sectoral mitigation action plan in Colombia3m

Use of evidence in the Colombian sectorial mitigation plans2m

Bridge from domestic policy to international contributions2m

MAPS Chile informing the INDC7m

Climate Change Mitigation discussion with Harald15m

Reflection2m

Course Conclusion11m

3 readings

Bridge from knowledge to domestic policy examples10m

Bridge from domestic policy to international contributions examples10m

Week 6: Resources10m

2 practice exercises

Week 6 Practice Quiz30m

Final exam30m

Reviews

4.7

165 reviews

5 stars
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3 stars
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TOP REVIEWS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

by NVFeb 17, 2019

It was a very interesting course with good lecturers. Learned alot as regards climate change mitigation. I also like how they analysed the situations for various regions.

by MGOct 3, 2016

Super-awesome course that taught me about the super-wicked problem of our time and how to effectively achieve climate change mitigation and development objectives from developing countries context

by DSOct 12, 2020

Thank you for a good informative course on Maps and also Climate Change in general. I enjoyed the content and presentation thereof.

by MZJan 2, 2020

Excellent course to develop the basic skill on Climate Change Mitigation under MAPs approach. I am thankful to University of CapeTown for such as an excellent course.

View all reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

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Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
The course may not offer an audit option. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid.
The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I purchase the Certificate?
When you purchase a Certificate you get access to all course materials, including graded assignments. Upon completing the course, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

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Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries

Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries

About this Course