The aim of this course is to demonstrate and discuss how solutions to major societal crises involve cross disciplinary thinking and action. The course will use the climate crisis and the societal management and handling as the example and show how understanding of the carbon cycle, technologies for handling and management of carbon, landscape planning, policy, economy, human engagement, and justice all are fundamental requirements for sustainable solutions.

Society faces several major challenges related to climate, biodiversity, pandemics, food supply and security. The solutions to these ‘wicked problems’ are far from trivial and involve a complex mix and interactions of knowledge from many different disciplines, spanning from scientific and technological, to economic, regulatory and public policy intervention, humanitarian and societal understanding.
Traditionally, universities are organized around disciplines giving students and candidates a strong and deep understanding of a particular field, while often overlooking cross-disciplinary understanding and solutions. Here, we will focus on solutions to major societal challenges by an interdisciplinary approach and through collaboration across all of UCPH’s 6 faculties to provide a holistic understanding and viable solutions.

Specifically, in this PhD course we will focus on the climate crisis as an example of such a major societal challenge. The course aims to demonstrate and discuss how solutions to this crisis depend on a fundamental shift in our approach to the use and management of carbon in society, and how this shift is dependent on inputs and understanding of basically every scientific discipline at the university.
For many decades we have used fossil carbon to gain energy, releasing carbon from deep geological deposits into the atmosphere as CO2. As a result, the Earth’s climate is changing drastically, with a multitude of severe consequences for human life on Earth. The solution is simple in theory: stop emissions of fossil CO2 into the atmosphere and reverse the carbon flow by reclaiming CO2 from the atmosphere to store it.

But as simple in theory, as complicated in practice. The society will have to reduce the use of fossil carbon drastically by transforming energy supply to renewables, move from linear to circular thinking in carbon use, develop technologies to capture and store CO2, develop alternative ways to provide the carbon needed for materials and chemicals based on atmospheric carbon capture, ensure coordination and collaboration across carbon handling sectors such as our food production. And we must develop laws, incentives, markets and regulatory instruments concerning CO2 to facilitate this transition, change human behavior, ensure public involvement, ownership and acceptance of solutions. A complex and truly interdisciplinary mix of efforts.

This PhD course will cover all the diverse aspects of the carbon problem and its solutions as part of the climate crisis. The course is therefore looking for PhD students from all scientific disciplines with an interest in solutions to major societal crises. Because of the breadth and complexity of the climate problem, no student will be familiar with all aspects – all students will have a “home turf” as well as areas of limited knowledge and understanding. This is the intention. The course will introduce all the scientific directions, allowing everyone with a keen interest in the field to participate, and provide the participants with a deeper understanding of both the technological and societal/humanitarian aspects.

Furthermore, tackling the climate crisis requires collaboration with civil society actors. Therefore, in each session, we will also host a guest lecturer from societal entities, who will provide an “on-the-ground” perspective on the discussion topic, together with the respective faculty member(s).

Knowledge:

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to

• Understand how the climate crisis is linked to the societal development and especially the use and management of carbon.
• Understand the fundamentals of the global carbon cycle".
• Understand how solutions to the climate crisis require a fundamental change in use and management of carbon and how this may interact and compete with biological carbon and food production and biodiversity.
• Understand how solutions to the climate crisis require a systemic and holistic approach to energy and consumption and a move from linear to circular thinking.
• Understand how solutions are dependent on societal and humanitarian interactions supporting economic incentives, governmental regulations and laws to manage carbon, change in citizen behavior, democratic processes to engagement and ownership and actions to protect the environment and biodiversity.
• Understand the interfaces between academic work and civil-society actors, including how the two can jointly contribute to solving the above-mentioned global challenges.

Skills:

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to

• Explain how climate change and the solutions to the climate crisis relates to the use and management of carbon, and how a switch in energy production/consumption and the complex biological carbon production and land use play significant roles in the climate solutions.
• Explain how a carbon neutral society leads to competition for carbon across sectors and uses, exploration and competition for land and requires societal prioritizations.
• Explain how carbon neutrality requires societal solutions through laws, regulatory instruments, the establishment of a coordinated carbon market and democratic participation and decision making.
• Be able to engage in the public debate about the importance of societal and humanitarian interaction in the development of solutions to complex societal challenges.

Competences:

• Competently outline and discuss the complex challenge and solution of carbon management in the climate crisis and the need for technological as well as societal and humanitarian approaches in developing solutions.
  

All PhD-students working with scientific questions relevant to solving major societal challenges.

The course will start with a general introduction to the climate crisis and the complex interaction of challenges and solutions needed to solve the crisis.

Each of the 6 following course modules will present and discuss a specific “challenge” related to the climate crisis spanning from (1) the natural science understanding of carbon, (2) technologies over the (3) planning, (4) economic, (5) regulatory and law aspects to (6) the involvement of the public in finding solutions.

The course will end with panel presentations and discussions by and among the students based on practical reflections and their personal scientific perspective on the crisis handling.

Each course module will be based on mandatory reading of key paper(s) related to the module focus and preparation of personal reflections by the students. Each module will include short presentation(s) by the module organisers to put the reading in perspective and facilitate the discussions. Further, each course module will include participation and presentation by a “real life” professional working with the module perspective.

The course will involve further involve a field trip to a project/municipality faced with climate related issues and challenges to find solutions.

Each module will invite one guest lecturer. These will be chosen from organisations, companies, think tanks, municipalities etc., who work within the climate solution arena and will represent a real life perspective on the exact challenge of each course module.

Collaborating Departments are:

• Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SCIENCE)
• Department for Chemistry (SCIENCE)
• Department of Food and Resource Economics, (SCIENCE)
• Department of Economics (SAMF)
• Department of Anthropology, (SAMF)
• Department of Political Science (SAMF)
• Centre for Climate Change Law and Governance (JUR)
• The UCPH Green Solution Centre (GSC)

Cross disciplinary course under Green Solutions Centre – therefore the venue will fluctuate across all UCPH campuses.