Trans­ition­ing Busi­ness and So­ci­ety to Strenght­en Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Re­si­li­ence

Course content

Climate change and Biodiversity loss are the most pressing environmental challenges facing society and challenging business globally. The momentous commitment achieved in 2015 with the Paris Agreement, to bring to near zero the amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted globally by 2050, has not been followed by decisive action. With the deepening of climate and biodiversity crisis, it becomes imperative to engage global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and increase resiliency. Swift and unprecedented action requires designing and innovating business, economic, and social activities in new ways, reducing use of all sources of carbon emissions. Business and society interactions need to be reshaped to build resilience against the already felt damaging effects of climate change. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and all businesses and societal activities can contribute to strengthen mitigation and resiliency.

This course prepares students to be part of multi-disciplinary teams as managers, innovators, researchers and employees who understand the systemic opportunities, risks and challenges of advancing climate action and resiliency. Students need to be prepared to interact beyond their fields and learn that they will be preparing to bridge understandings between science, technology, social and environmental justice and economics from concrete business and societal climate interventions.

The course builds knowledge on what constitute effective climate action within business and at societal, community and behavioral level. This entails 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. The course emphasizes how to build clear communication of risks and opportunities to business, the public and the political system. The course helps students critically assess policy relevance and feasibility beyond technological innovations to understanding factors that makes the energy and resiliency transition financially and socially feasible and acceptable.

This course builds deep interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and seeks to strengthen students' capabilities to work toward filling and bridging knowledge 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 will include lectures from faculty from partner universities, business actors, and active organized civil society participants. The class emphasizes group work, discussion, case discussions and presentations, and hands-on in class exercises.

In relation to Nordic Nine

The course Transitioning Business and Society to Strengthen Climate Mitigation and Resilience supports the Nordic Nine capabilities by teaching analytical approaches to understand humanity’s challenges, climate change and biodiversity loss 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).