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Responding to the twin environmental crises of biodiversity loss and climate change will be a vital global, societal challenge for the 21st Century. These crises have prompted considerable debate, initiatives, policies, public campaigns and, arguably, failures in our societal response to date. TheÌýmoduleÌýwill explore the past, current and potential future approaches to environmental governance in the face of these crises. Its primary aim is to evaluate a range of different perspectives and worldviews regarding how we should respond in a way that is fair, effective, and holistic across these twin crises.

ThisÌýmoduleÌýtherefore explores societal responses to these crises with the goal of enabling critical but hopeful thinking about paths forward. TheÌýmoduleÌýcovers a range of possible governance approaches and interventions, delivered through both taught sessions and independent student research, incorporating, for example, the role of international or national political agreements, regulation, NGOs, activism, corporate sustainability initiatives and green finance, and behavioural change. In doing so, theÌýmoduleÌýencourages consideration of the synergies and trade-offs in societal responses, both between these different forms of interventions as well as between biodiversity loss and climate change (e.g. that policies enacted to ‘solve’ one crisis, might exacerbate another). TheÌýmoduleÌýwill also encourage Ìýself-reflection on how worldviews and positionality shape perspectives on these debates, appreciating that interventions to crises will always be situated and partial.

TheÌýmoduleÌýwill be delivered through a mixture of lectures, seminars and in-class discussions. The individual coursework Ìýprovides the opportunity to evaluate an existing governance approach to these crises and incorporates a self-reflective component.

TheÌýmoduleÌýaims to:

• Outline the concept of an environmentalÌýcrisis, with a particular focus on biodiversity loss and climate change
• Explore past, current and future responses to these crises
• Compare the different governance approaches to crisis, regarding who should act, at what scale and through what mechanisms
• Develop understandings of societal responses to these crises as situated and partial, coming from specific positions and worldviews

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By the end of theÌýmoduleÌýstudents should be able to:

• Understand the primary challenges of the biodiversity and climate crises, and be able to articulate current governance approaches to these
• Explain the synergies and trade-offs in societal responses to the biodiversity and climate change crises
• Critically evaluate proposed solutions and interventions to these crises
• Reflect on the ways that solutions and interventions are geographically and culturally situated, and consider their own positionality within these debates

The module enhances career skills derived through critical thinking, analysis of existing governance approaches, and enhanced ‘global citizenship’ through exploration of diverse worldviews on an important, contemporary topic.