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Introduction to Climate Change

By Dr V. Venkat Ramanan   |   Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi
Learners enrolled: 582

In the backdrop of importance placed on creating awareness on climate change science and adaptation strategies by various ministries under the Government of India, the course is tailor-made to incorporate the developments in the domain of climate change concerning human influences on climate, the consequences of climate change, climate change conventions and protocols. 

The course covers fundamentals of climate change, the past and present climate, climate change indicators, international conventions on climate change and National Action Plan on Climate change. The objective of this course is to explain the science of climate change, and to explain the conventions on climate change.

The learners will be enriched with knowledge on the impact of climate change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The potential threats of climate change on sectors like agriculture, livestock and natural resources are covered extensively in the course.


Summary
Course Status : Completed
Course Type : Not Applicable
Duration : 16 weeks
Category :
  • Multidisciplinary
Credit Points : 4
Level : Postgraduate
Start Date : 01 Feb 2022
End Date :
Enrollment Ends : 15 Mar 2022
Exam Date :

Page Visits



Course layout

Week

Module

Text in PDF form

Video Lessons

Week-1

Module-1 Atmosphere and Climate

1. Atmospheric structure and composition


2. Solar radiation and global energy budget


3. External and internal forcing


4. Climate Feedbacks

1. Introduction to climate change

2. Causes of climate change – Part 1

Week-2

Module-1 Atmosphere and Climate

3. Causes of climate change – Part 2

4. Radiative Forcing


Week-3

Module-1 Atmosphere and Climate

5. Greenhouse Gases Emissions

Week-4

Module-2

Global Climate -Past, Present and Future

5. Account of past climate


6.  Environmental indicators and instrumental records


7. Human Footprints on global warming


8. Predicting future climates


9. Temperature regime


10. Extreme climate events

6. The Past Climate- Part 1

7. The Past Climate- Part 2

Week-5

Module-2

Global Climate -Past, Present and Future


8. Environmental Indicators



9. Human footprints on global warming

Week-6

Module-2

Global Climate -Past, Present and Future


10. Greenhouse gases emission scenario

Week-7

Module-2

Global Climate -Past, Present and Future


11. Temperature regime

Week-8

Module-2

Global Climate -Past, Present and Future

12. Extreme climate events

Week-9

Module-3 Climate Change Impacts

11. Impact of climate change on agriculture

12. Impact of climate change on Livestock 

13. Impact of climate change on biodiversity

14. Impact of climate change on water resources

13. Impact of climate change on agriculture

14.Impact of climate change on Livestock 

15.Impact of climate change on biodiversity

16.Impact of climate change on water resources

Week-10

Module-3 Climate Change Impacts

15. Impact of climate change on livelihood

16. Impact of climate change on human health

17. Climate change vulnerability assessment

17.Impact of climate change on livelihood

18.Impact of climate change on human health

19.Climate change vulnerability assessment

Week-11

Module-3 Climate Change Impacts

18. Life Cycle Assessment

19. Geoinformatics in Climate Change Studies

20. Concept of mitigation and adaptation

20.Social vulnerability

21.Life Cycle Assessment

22. Geoinformatics in Climate Change Studies- Part 1

23. Geoinformatics in Climate Change Studies- Part 2

24.Concept of mitigation and adaptation

Week-12

Module-3 Climate Change Impacts

21. Climate smart agriculture 

22. Soil carbon sequestration 

23. Biofuels

24. Climate Refugees

25. Climate Justice

26. Climate Change and Gender

25.Climate smart agriculture – Part 1

26.Climate smart agriculture – Part 2

27.Soil carbon sequestration 

28.Biofuels

29.Climate Refugees

30.Climate Justice

31.Climate Change and Gender

Week-13

Module-4

Conventions on climate change

27. International Initiatives




28. National Level Action Plan


29. State Level Action Plan

32.Climate Policy

33.UNFCCC

Week-14

Module-4

Conventions on climate change

34.Paris Agreement

35.SDG

36.SDG 13

Week-15

Module-4

Conventions on climate change


37.National Action Plan on climate change


38.State Action Plan on Climate Change

Week-16

Module-4

Conventions on climate change

39.Response of Subnational Government

40.Social Movements and Global Civil Society

Books and references


Barry RG and Chorley RJ. (2010). Atmosphere, weather and climate. 8th Edition. Routledge, New York. pp.421

Burroughs WJ (2007) Climate Change: A multidisciplinary approach. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Pp.390. ISBN: 978-0-521-69033-1 

Dessler A (2016) Introduction to Modern Climate Change. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-521-17315-5 

Fletcher C (2018) Climate Change: What the science tells us. 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons. Pp.336. ISBN: 978-1-118-79306-0 

Houghton JT (2015) Global Warming: The complete briefing. 5th Edition. Cambridge University Press. Pp.456. ISBN: 978-0-521-70916. 

IPCC (2014a) Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp. 

IPCC (2014b) Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y .O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P .R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, USA, 1132 pp. 

IPCC (2014c) Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA

IPCC, (2013) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp. 

IPCC, (2018) Summary for Policymakers. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 32 pp. 

Web Links 

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/ 

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/ 

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg3/

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/

https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/


Instructor bio

Dr V. Venkat Ramanan

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi
V. Venkat Ramanan is an assistant professor at the School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. His interests include climate smart agriculture, climate policy, and biodegradation. He has published more than 20 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.


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