Postgraduate climate programmes at UCL Social & Historical Sciences
Join us for an online taster session to discover the climate-focused postgraduate taught degrees in UCL Geography and UCL Political Science.
Postgraduate climate programmes at UCL Social & Historical Sciences
30 Apr 2025, 10:00 – 17:00
Join our virtual information session to discover the climate-focused postgraduate degree programmes in UCL Social & Historical Sciences. Our courses at UCL Geography and UCL Political Science are designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to be a climate leader.
Taster lectures from our academics across the three programmes will be followed by a chance for you to ask your questions with our academic experts and student representatives.
Sessions are taking place online via Zoom webinar at 10:00-11:30 and 15:30-17:00.
Our masters degrees
- Climate Change MSc: Providing rigorous scientific and vocational training, this course will help you understand and meet the challenges posed by climate change. Climate change is a big issue with many governmental, non-governmental and commercial consequences. This programme will give graduates an edge when applying for jobs in the private sector relating to adaptation and mitigation - such as the insurance industry and carbon monitoring companies respectively. It also provides a great stepping-stone to a PhD.
- Climate Change Policy and Politics MSc: How societies respond to climate change is determined by politics at the global, national, and local levels. In the Climate Change Policy and Politics MSc, students will gain expertise in the politics of climate policymaking. The programme has three core elements: (1) the policy options for addressing climate change, (2) the politics of different policy options, including how to design politically feasible policies for a particular context, and (3) understanding the key role of climate justice in shaping the ethics and politics of climate policy. Additionally, students will be trained in cutting edge quantitative and qualitative research methods. The programme is intended for students that want to study climate policy and politics together, in order to gain knowledge of practical policy tools and the politics of getting them adopted and implemented.
- Environment, Politics and Society MSc: Study at the intersection of climate, justice and society. This unique MSc equips you with the tools to interrogate, influence, and reimagine environmental politics in all its various forms. It places particular emphasis on exploring how environmental and political knowledges are made, acquired, communicated and incorporated in governance and decision-making. The programme will prepare graduates for roles in international organisations, public policy, and non-profit sectors. It also provides a strong foundation for pursuing a PhD, enabling further research into the dynamics of environmental politics and societal impact.
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Copyright: © Sophie Mitchell
The power of climate change
Dr Sam Randalls (Environment, Politics and Society MSc)
This short taster lecture will outline how and in what ways concerns about climate change have political effects. We’ll explore how climate knowledges are mobilised and the ways these shape and limit approaches to governance. In particular, we’ll contrast how some forms of climate knowledge are globalised through international scientific networks and political negotiations while other forms of knowledge remain locally embedded. We’ll consider what this means for governance whether in lending power to convince actors of the importance of climate action, drawing attention to the role of some actors over others, or in prioritising particular policies or approaches over alternatives. The lecture provides a topical focus of the kinds of debates about knowledge and governance within the modules on the Environment, Politics and Society MSc programme.
Modelling the climate of the past
Professor Chris Brierley (Climate Change MSc)
The department has strong research expertise in both understanding past climates and environment modelling. In this taster session, we'll be exploring the intersection of the two topics. We'll consider a little how climate models are built to run for periods without observations, then look at insights gained from them, and finally discuss the coordinated experiments planned to support the next major climate report (IPCC Assessment Report 7).
Why is it so difficult for elected leaders to address climate change?
Dr Jared Finnegan (Climate Change Policy and Politics MSc)
In this taster lecture, Dr Jared Finnegan will discuss why it is so difficult for elected leaders to address climate change. He will cover the basic political science theory of politicians' motivations and show how their incentives are not always aligned with taking bold climate action. He will then describe ways of designing more political feasible climate policies.
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes