IPCC members and Obama advisor behind new MSc E-learning course on Climate Change

To meet the increasing demand for higher education courses on climate change, University of Copenhagen is now offering a new interdisciplinary 15 ECTS MSc E-learning course on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation. The course is developed in close cooperation between University of Copenhagen, the Danish Meteorological Institute, UC Berkeley and Australian National University and involves members of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

Christian Bugge Henriksen, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, who is responsible for the course, explains that the focus of the course is climate change impacts and the human response to climate change, including efforts to adapt to climate change, as well as efforts to avoid or reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Using the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report as the main reference together with recent complementary and contrasting findings, the relevant managerial and economic tools are applied to analyse the different aspects of climate change and discuss possible solutions.

The course is developed by an interdisciplinary team of teachers, including four members of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC): John R. Porter, Professor in Agroecology at Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Ole John Nielsen, Professor in Atmospheric Chemistry at Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen; Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, Senior Advisor at the Danish Meteorological Institute; and Daniel M. Kammen, Professor in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and Senior Climate Advisor to Barack Obama. The IPCC won the 2007 Nobel Prize.

Since the course is offered as E-learning, it will be possible to follow the course from everywhere in the world if you have internet access. It is open to MSc students and continuing education students with a relevant BSc background in natural science, social science and economics. The course starts in February 2009.

The development of the course is supported by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Notes: University of Copenhagen will be hosting the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in March 2009 ( www.climatecongress.ku.dk). The congress is organised by IARU, the International Association of Research Universities, and is a run up to COP15, the UN Conference on Climate Change to be held in Denmark in November - December 09. (www.cop15.dk/en)