Circle U.’s interdisciplinary summer schools are back! On 24-28 July, the Knowledge Hub on Climate is offering “Climate Science & Policy: How to Transition to a Post-Carbon Future” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The school will combine traditional teaching formats with hands-on active learning – including a software-assisted UN simulation. Dr Hillary Briffa, lecturer in National Security Studies at King’s College London and Circle U. Climate Chair, talks about why negotiations fail, the emotions that come with putting oneself in the shoes of national representatives, and what students will take away from the summer school as a whole.
You are a lecturer in National Security Studies and a Circle U. Chair with the Climate Hub. How does that go together?
My academic interest is in the security of small states. Doing work on climate security came very naturally to me because many small states are on the frontlines of the climate emergency. Take for example Caribbean and Pacific islands, which are facing the challenge of rising sea levels or natural disasters such as hurricanes. Meanwhile, they often have insufficient access to financing from the IMF and other global bodies because they're considered middle to high income. I'm interested in climate security and many of the second-order effects that climate change has on the protection and safeguarding of societies.
The summer school that you are part of is explicitly interdisciplinary, with a strong policy focus. Can you explain what that will look like?
Students need to understand the scientific causes of climate change but in order to do something about it, they also need to understand how governance around this works. The policy approach is broad enough in scope to encompass both. It gives students agency and equips them to feel that they better understand how to influence change makers in their communities. This matters because most of our students don't only want to understand from an academic perspective, but because they really are concerned and want to be able to go out and put pressure on their local and institutional representatives to initiate some change.
One of the ways you will help the students understand the governance aspect is through a simulation, right? What’s the plan?
Absolutely! We wanted to give students an opportunity to engage in active learning and to really be in the driver's seat - particularly with something like policy, which may sound a bit abstract at first. So, I'm organising a simulation on the UN climate negotiations. Students will be in teams representing different states and deciding what cuts to emissions they propose to make, how much deforestation and how much afforestation they commit to. What's really exciting about this role-playing game is that it gives students an opportunity to think through different competing interests of different countries, some of which might have particularly strong lobby groups in certain areas and that are facing different kinds of pressures regarding climate change from their populations. Some are on the frontlines of this problem and some might not be feeling the effects in quite the same way, so might be willing to delay action.
You will be using a software to calculate the effects of the student’s pledges on the planet, right?
Yes. The students will work in teams and deliver their pledges. We will then put the numbers they commit to into a programme which will predict the outcomes on the planet. The simulator is called C-ROADS and is provided by Climate Interactive, which is an American organisation that advises on best practices for running simulations on this topic, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Massachusetts. It has a function where you can show the sea levels rising. So, after the first round, sometimes I pull that up and show students who's under water as a result of what they've pledged to do! There are several features that can really bring out what those random numbers on the screen actually equate to in practice.
You've run this simulation before. Without giving too much away – how does it tend to go?
It can be quite an emotional experience, because students are often very, very passionate about this topic, but then might feel that the challenge is too great for them to tackle. So, it can be quite tough. But towards the end I always have them imagine what the future could look like if we did manage to achieve the necessary numbers and resolve the problems. That way, I hope, we can end the discussion on a more empowering and hopeful note. Because, really, we need a bit of hope in our lives!
What can students take away, from the simulation but also from the school as a whole, to their various disciplines?
It's an academic programme, so we want them to come away with a deeper understanding of climate issues, particularly from an interdisciplinary perspective. That's why we wanted to target BA students who might not be as deeply entrenched in their disciplinary processes as tends to happen when you become more specialised later on. There are also a whole host of transferable skills we want them to take away, including team work, group work and presentation skills.
In a nutshell – why should students apply for this summer school?
Students should apply to this school because it is a unique opportunity to learn about climate from an interdisciplinary perspective that takes them out of their comfort zones and allows them to engage with peers from nine European cities in one of the most dynamic European capitals. I love Berlin - apart from London it's my favourite city in Europe. So - come to the summer school because it's in Berlin, you’ll learn a huge amount, and it's free!
