- Autumn 2023
Syllabus Description:
Climate Politics and Governance (POL S 458A)
Aseem Prakash, Fall 2023
Class: 1230-220, Loew Hall 219
Office Hours: By appointment, please email <aseem@uw.edu>
Course Objective
Climate change is perhaps the defining challenge of our time. Because it critically affects every aspect of our life, climate governance is complex and contested. There are several ways climate policies can support economic growth and create new opportunities. But climate policies can also create winners and losers and create social conflict. This undergraduate seminar will examine important policy issues in climate governance such as mitigation and adaptation policies, climate migration, climate justice, and climate finance. We will examine how well the existing approaches and institutions are working, and what new initiatives can help us respond to the climate challenge.
Readings
Readings are either uploaded on Canvas or I have provided the article URL.
This is a Device Free Class
Research suggests that the use of electronic devices in class can be distracting for you and for your colleagues. Therefore, to enhance your learning experience, during the class, you are not allowed to use phones, tablets, laptops or any Internet-connectable devices. Please take notes using a pen and a notebook.
Course Expectations
This course requires active student participation. You are expected to energetically and thoughtfully contribute to class discussions in the following ways.
Writing Memos
Article memos
For every session (except when we have guest speakers), students will be assigned an article to present and critique. The discussant-presenter should prepare a two-page (single-spaced) “Article Memo” which summarizes the article, examines its strengths and weaknesses, and identifies questions it raises for future research. Please email this memo to me by Monday 9:00 am for the Monday afternoon class, and by Wednesday 9:00 am for the Wednesday afternoon class. The discussant-presenter should budget about 10 minutes for the in-class oral presentation (no PowerPoint). In the course of this quarter, you will probably be assigned to present 2 or 3 articles.
Key questions memo
I expect seminar participants to review all the assigned readings prior to the class. Based on these readings for a given session, you will write a “Key questions” memo. In this memo, identify two or three questions or issues that emerge from the assigned readings, along with a rationale as to why these questions are important. Your “Key Questions Memo” should be about one-page (single-spaced) and reach me by Monday 9:00 am for the Monday afternoon class, and by Wednesday 9:00 am for the Wednesday afternoon class.
I have divided the course into three modules with about seven class sessions for every module. You need to write 2 key question memos (for two different class sessions) from every module (this means, 6 key question memos in total).
Think of Module 1. Suppose you like readings from session 3. After reading the articles assigned for this session, think of two or three overarching questions that you believe emerge from these readings and should be covered during class discussions.
Please note: If you are assigned to present a specific article for session 3 (and therefore write the article memo), you will not write a key question memo for this session.
Research Paper
Identify two countries, cities, or firms and compare how they are responding to climate change (note: you cannot write on the US, Washington state, California, Seattle, King County, and China). Specifically:
- Identify two units you wish to study.
- Briefly explain how they are similar or different (the rationale for comparing them)?
- Specify the policies (mitigation and/or adaptation) you will be comparing.
- Why are you focusing on these policies; what do you think they might reveal about these units' climate policies?
- Do you expect the responses of these units will be similar or different? Why?
- Therefore what? How do you think this study might move forward your understanding of climate policy?
Please write in regular prose and not in bullet points. The one-page outline is due November 1 and a five-page (single-spaced; excluding references and tables) research paper is due December 6. I recommend structuring your paper into sections and subsections. We will also schedule presentations (15 minutes per student) towards the end of the quarter.
Evaluation
In total, you can score 100 points. To convert this into a 4-point scale, I will simply divide it by 25.
Article Memos: 30 points (10 points per memo * 3 memos)
Key Questions Memos: 30 points (5 points per memo * 6 memos)
Class Participation: 20 points
Research Paper: 10 points
Research Presentation: 10 points
Total: 100 points
Note
I reserve the right to change the syllabus without prior notice.
Religious Accommodation
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for the accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request accommodation, is available at Faculty Syllabus Guidelines and Resources. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form available at https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/
Class Schedule
__________________Module 1_____________________
Session 1
Wednesday, September 28
Syllabus and course expectations
1. Think you’re making good climate choices? Take this mini-quiz
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/30/climate/climate-footprint-quiz.html
- Different approaches to reducing aviation emissions: reviewing the structure-agency debate in climate policy. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44168-022-00001-w
Lynn Brown
- Did your handbag help destroy the Rainforest?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/style/lvmh-nike-prada-amazon-deforestation.html
Pedro Caballero
- Texas is the country’s clean energy leader, almost in spite of itself
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17022022/inside-clean-energy-texas-clean-energy-leader/
Jasmine Cleary
- Why people aren’t motivated to address climate change.
https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-to-address-climate-change
Camille Duckett
- Taylor Swift and climate change: Is the youth “Shaking Off” or embracing carbon-intensive lifestyles?
Jeremy Duffy
Session 2
Monday, October 2
Overview
- Carbon Capture Takes Center Stage, But Is Its Promise an Illusion?
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09032022/carbon-capture-and-storage-fossil-fuels-climate-change/
Megan Hassi
- Can we save the planet by shrinking the economy?
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22408556/save-planet-shrink-economy-degrowth
Zaina Ibrahim
- A wildfire may have forever changed this Colorado community — and who can afford to live there
https://grist.org/wildfires/in-the-wake-of-a-wildfire-who-gets-to-rebuild-grand-county-colorado/
LukeJouflas
- A New York power line divided environmentalists. Here’s what it says about the larger climate fight.
Nahee Kim
- Wildfire smoke is erasing progress on Clean Air.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/22/climate/wildfire-smoke-pollution.html
Jacob Klatzker
Session 3
Wednesday, October 4
Perspective and approaches
- On the divergent American reactions to terrorism and climate change. Canvas
Medha Kumar
- Climate change and the Syrian civil war revisited. Canvas
Lily Kurtz
- Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-tr...
Alicia Lopez
- The ‘green energy’ that might be ruining the planet. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/26/biomass-carbon-climate-politics-477620
Trevor Macko
- The activists who embrace nuclear power
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-activists-who-embrace-nuclear-power
James Mertz
Session 4
Monday, October 9
Ongoing Debates
Cameron Morgan
- Deep-sea mining may soon ease the world’s battery-metal shortage
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/07/02/deep-sea-min...
Rosemary Norheim
- When, where, and which climate activists have vandalized museums
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-023-00054-5
Nick Oh
- How social norms are often a barrier to addressing climate change but can be part of the solution
Canvas
Christina Parmlelee
- Climate clashes with labor: UAW strike reveals ESG problems.
Sadah Sarkaria
- Despite a changing climate, Americans are flocking to fire’
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08122022/climate-change-migration-us/
Session 5
Wednesday, October 11
Barriers to climate response
Daniel Rashevsky
- How climate change could spark the next home mortgage disaster
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/30/climate-change-mortgage-housing-environment-433721
Corinne Ryan
- African nations’ dash for gas exposes division at the UN and ‘hypocrisy’ in Europe
Kareese Pippinger
- How a European law might get companies around the world to cut climate pollution
Caroline Sasser
- Palm oil was supposed to help save the planet. Instead it unleashed a catastrophe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/magazine/palm-oil-borneo-climate-catastrophe.html
Connor Shoup
- The battle of Thacker Pass
https://grist.org/climate/the-west-has-a-new-front-in-the-war-over-electric-cars/
Session 6
Monday, October 16
Challenges in climate mitigation
Sammy Smith
- Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative White males in the United States.
Canvas
Sara Sprague
- Advancing bipartisan decarbonization policies: lessons from state-level successes and failures.
Canvas
Abby Stover
- Do windy areas have more wind turbines: An empirical analysis of wind installed capacity in Native Tribal Nations.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261752
Molly Tebb
- My Native Alaskan Community needs the Willow Oil Project
Lauren Williams
- Varieties of just transition: Public support in South Africa’s Mpumalanga coal community for different policy options
https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000205
_____________________ Module 2 _____________________
Session 7
Wednesday, October 18
Business and Climate Change
Luke
32. Who is a climate leader? Amazon’s 2022 Sustainability Report. https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2023/07/23/who-is-a-climate-leader-amazons-2022-sustainability-report/?sh=42ddbb1f97e6
Zaina
33. Pope Francis, climate message, and meat tax: evidence from survey experiment in Italy. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-023-00040-x
Meagan Hassi
34. The impact of climate change on the pattern of demand for bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages.
Canvas
Nahee Kim
35. The Power to Stay: Climate, Cocoa, and the Politics of Displacement. Canvas
Jacob
36. Carbon labels in tourism: persuasive communication?
Canvas
Session 8
Monday, October 23
New issues
Pedro
37. Solar geoengineering and climate change
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47551
Jasmine
38. What to do about Pig poop? North Carolina fights a rising tide.
Canvas
Lynn
39. Legal experts define a new global crime: Ecocide https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22062021/ecocide-definition-panel-international-crime/
Camille
40. Justice or overreach?: As crucial test looms, Big Greens are under fire
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/19/big-green-justice-environment-00040148
Jeremy
41. Industrial agriculture, an extraction industry Like fossil fuels, a growing driver of climate change
Session 9
Wednesday, October 25
Incorporating adaptation in the policy process
Nick
42. Exploring the adaptation-mitigation relationship
Canvas
Cameron
43. Outdoor recreation and climate adaptation
https://houserepublicans.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OrcaPlanReport-FINAL-112421.pdf
Rosemary
44. Lessons from New York: What makes a community turn against climate adaptation?
Christine Parmlee
45. The Jersey shore would rather fight flooding with walls than retreat
Kareese
46. Can burying power lines prevent California’s next big wildfire? https://grist.org/wildfires/can-burying-power-lines-prevent-california-n...
Session 10
Monday, October 30
Adaptation
Alicia
47. The politics of climate change adaptation https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-environ-102017-025739
Trevor
48. High mountain communities and climate change: adaptation, traditional ecological knowledge, and institutions. Canvas
Medha
49. Pesticides, Heat, and the People Who Feed Us: Climate Change Is Making Farmworkers’ Dangerous Job Even Worse
https://blog.ucsusa.org/rafter-ferguson/pesticides-heat-farmworkers/
Lilly
50. In the waterlogged Netherlands, climate change is considered neither a hypothetical nor a drag on the economy. Instead, it’s an opportunity. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html
James
51. How the world’s favorite conservation model was built on colonial violence
https://grist.org/indigenous/30x30-world-conservation-model-colonialism-...
Paper outline is due
Session 11
Wednesday, November 1 (no article assignments but pls write key question memos)
Climate Anxiety
Guest Speaker: Dr. Robert Berley
52. Apocalypse When? (Not) thinking or talking about climate change. Canvas
53. Resources for working with Climate emotions - A collaboration between Gen Dread and The All We Can Save Project.
54. Recognizing Eco-Anxiety - What It Is and Ways You Might Be Affected. Canvas
Format
A. Refer to “Key Questions Memo” – write a “key question” about each
B. WATCH the first 3.00 minutes of Michael Shaw’s film, https://www.livinginthetimeofdying.com/watch
C. Pause …
D. Write some notes describing your feelings (a list, a paragraph or an essay, if you wish)
E. Pause … 6. WATCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei7T3y9amzU (and the rest of Michael’s movie, if you wish)
F. Take notes on her specific recommendations. Number them.
G. Pause
H. Consider each and identify any you have a “yes, but…” response to. Write a few sentences that express your objections or push back as though speaking to her. What would prevent this suggestion from working for you?
I. Can you add any suggestions from your own life?
Session 12
Monday, November 6
Droughts and climate change
Corinne
- Wall Street Eyes Billions in Colorado’s Water
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/business/colorado-river-water-rights.html
Daniel
- In southeastern Arizona, farms drill a half-mile deep while families pay the price
Caroline Sasser
- Could the Drying Up of Europe’s Great Rivers Be the New Normal
https://e360.yale.edu/features/europe-rivers-drought
Sadah
- First solar canal project is a win for water, energy, air and climate in California,
Connor
- The effects of extreme drought on climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation attitudes
Canvas
____________________Module 3 _____________________
Session 13
Wednesday, November 8
Climate migration
Sami
- Climate change as a migration driver from rural and urban Mexico. Canvas
Sara Sprague
- Breaking a Vicious Circle of Climate Change in Zimbabwe
https://longnow.org/ideas/02022/09/14/zimbabwe-climate-migration-wildlife/
Abby
- Welcoming climate refugees to the United States: Do attitudes depend on refugee origins, numbers, or permanence? Canvas.
Molly
- Gender and climate change-induced migration: proposing a framework for analysis
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/7/2/025601/pdf
Lauren
- Willingness to Help Climate Migrants: A Survey Experiment in the Korail Slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249315
Session 14
Monday, November 13
Gender and climate change
Jasmine
- Effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public.
Canvas
Lynn
- Virtue and vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate change.
Canvas
Camille
- Is adaptation to climate change gender neutral? Lessons from communities dependent on livestock and forests in northern Mali.
Canvas
Megan Hassi
- Gender in climate change, agriculture, and natural resource policies: insights from East Africa
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02447-0
Zaina
- Uncertain predictions, invisible impacts, and the need to mainstream gender in climate change adaptations
Canvas
Session 15
Wednesday, November 15
Climate justice
Luke
- Three faces of climate justice.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-125514
Pedro
- The controversies at the heart of California’s solar net-metering fight https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/the-controversies-at-the-hear...
Jacob
- Can California’s Cap and Trade Actually Address Environmental Justice? https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/11/20/california-pollution-cap-trade
Jeremy
- Gen Z, Millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issue
ttps://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-c...
Nahee
- Urban Heatwaves Are Worse For Low-Income Neighborhoods
https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2020/08/14/urban-heatwaves-ar... .
Session 16
Monday, November 20
Climate finance and insurance
Medha
- Wildfires Hasten Another Climate Crisis: Homeowners Who Can’t Get Insurance
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/climate/wildfires-insurance.html
Corinne
- What Counts as Climate? Preliminary Evidence from the World Bank’s Climate (pages 1-12 only) Portfolihttps://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/what-counts-climate-preliminar...
Alicia
- Signaling climate resilience to municipal bond markets: does membership in adaptation‑focused voluntary clubs affect bond rating? Canvas
Trevor
- How to Slow Climate Change While Fighting Poverty
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/07/cop27-green-aid-slow-climate-change-while-fighting-poverty/
James
- A Managed decline for Oil-Dependent Regions: How sovereign wealth funds can support a just transition to clean energy.
https://www.sightline.org/2020/09/08/a-managed-decline-for-oil-dependent-regions/
Session 17
Wednesday, November 23 (Virtual class over zoom)
Cameron
80. The Politics of Climate Policy Instruments
Canvas
Nick
81. How International Relations Theory of Norm Cascades for Inform the Politics of Climate Change
Canvas
Rosemary
82. Varieties of Environmentalisms and Latino Views of Climate Action
Canvas
Christina
83. US Partisan Polarization of Climate Policy: Can Stalemate Give Way to Opportunity?
Canvas
Karesee
84. Global Climate Policy Beyond the Paris Agreement
Canvas
Session 18
Monday, November 27
In-class presentations
Brown Lynn Aku
Caballero Pedro
Cleary Jasmine
Duffy Jeremy
Hassi Megan Grace
Ibrahim Zaina
Session 19
Wednesday, November 29
In-class presentations
Jouflas Luke Martin
Kim Nahee
Klatzker Jacob
Kumar Medha
Kurtz Lilly
Lopez Alicia Leslie
Macko Trevor Steven
Mertz James Hamilton
Session 20
Monday, December 4
In-class presentations
Morgan Cameron Rei
Norheim Rosemary A
Oh Nick
Parmelee Christina L
Pippinger Kareese Noelle
Rashevsky Daniel
Ryan Corinne Margaret
Sarkaria Sadah
Research Paper is due
Session 21
Wednesday, December 6
In-class presentations
Duckett Camille Audrey
Sasser Caroline Colombe
Shoup Connor Robert
Smith Sami
Sprague Sara
Stover Abby
Tebb Molly E
Williams Lauren Marie