Introduction to Climate Change

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

Learners enrolled: 553

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
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	16 weeks
Category :	Multidisciplinary
Credit Points :	4
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	15 Jul 2024
End Date :	30 Nov 2024
Enrollment Ends :	31 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	07 Dec 2024 IST
Exam Shift :	Shift-I

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

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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