SDG Detail

F&ES 761 Negotiating International Agreements: The Case of Climate Change

Postgraduate course

Project description

This seminar is a practical introduction to the negotiation of international agreements, with a focus on climate change. Students learn about the cross-cutting features of international environmental agreements and, through the climate change lens, explore the process of negotiating agreements, the development of national positions, the advocacy of positions internationally, and the many ways in which differences among negotiating countries are resolved. The course also examines the history and substance of the climate change regime, including, inter alia, the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, and the 2015 Paris Agreement. Climate change issues in other international fora are also discussed, e.g., the International Civil Aviation Organization�s market-based mechanism to address CO2 emissions from international aviation. Grades are based on a series of short non-research papers, as well as class participation and a mock negotiation. Enrollment limited to eighteen to twenty.