About the PhD Programme

The following courses will be offered at UNU-IIST during the first semester of academic year 2012/2013,

1. Environment and Development: An Introductory Course

• Lecturer: Dr. Jose Roberto Guevara and Dr. Jeffrey King
• Date: 10 Sept 2012 - 21 Sept 2012
•  Course description: 
  The course examines the nexus between development and the environment from a theoretical, practical and policy perspective, within the context of the current challenges and responses, with a particular focus on the recent Rio+20 conference.
  Fundamental tension between classical perceptions of the environment as a technical and scientific resource in development, and contemporary theories and approaches which recognize the complex relationship between local communities, their economies and their environment are revisited as a way to investigate each of the pillars of the concept of ‘sustainable development’.
  The delicate balance between addressing the goals of poverty reduction within a perspective of ‘environmental justice’ will inform the examination of current practices of community development, building on the contexts and experiences of the participants. Proposals for achieving a sustainable economy, with particular interest in the most recent discussion on the ‘green economy’, will be debated. And while global environmental problems, such as climate change, desertification, deforestation, and biodiversity loss, are important concerns, the course will examine these environmental problems based on their interrelationships with the social and economic dimensions.
  The course concludes by looking at current governance approaches that acknowledge the complex interrelationships and interests that shape the way we will move towards addressing the tensions that were identified at the start of the course, within the changing contexts of globalization.
   

2. Climate Change, Energy and Sustainable Development

• Lecturer: Dr Kaushik Bandyopadhyay
  
• Date: 24 Sept 2012 - 5 Oct 2012
• Course outline:
  1. Climate Change: Understanding the phenomenon and its impact
  2. Climate Change and Sustainable Development
  3. Energy, Sustainable Development and Climate Change: Understanding the Crucial Nexus 
  4. Policies and Measures 
  5. Overview of the International Politics and Negotiations
   

3. Sustainability Modelling

• Lecturer: Dr. Matteo Pedercini
• Date: 29 October 2012 - 9 November 2012 
• Course outline:
  This course is designed for professionals, researchers and graduate students in the field of sustainable development planning who seek to strengthen their analytical capacity with quantitative methods, such as System Dynamics. It is also well suited as introductory course for technicians who are using, or are planning to use, the Threshold 21 (T21) model for medium-long term sustainability analysis in their country.
  The course consists of 2 weeks of intensive training on System Dynamics, with a special focus on its application to sustainability issues. The course transfers to participants the ability to apply the System Dynamics method to common sustainability issues, and to build and use simple simulation models for policy analysis. The course includes a series of lectures, hands-on modeling exercises, simulation and board games.

4. Seminars in ICT for Sustainable Development

• Lecturers: Peter Haddawy, Tomasz Janowski, Zhiming Liu, Antonio Cerone, Han Ei Chew and Elsa Estevez.
• Date: Throughout the 2012 semester

General Enquiries: PhD-enquiries@iist.unu.edu