PO/ES 315 - Environmental Policy

Environmental policy encompasses many different policy issues and levels. In this module, the focus lies on forest and climate policy at a regional, national, EU and global level. These two policy fields lend themselves to discussing the different characteristics and challenges of environmental policy and to identifying supportive and hindering relations between political subsystems.

Students will gain knowledge about forest and climate policy issues and developments, learn about different approaches in policy analysis and enrich their civic competence. As a crosscutting issue, the course will always look at the challenges of integrating knowledge into the policy-making process. Besides, time will be dedicated to the historical perspective in policy studies in order to broaden the awareness for long-term developments. The geographic emphasis lies on Germany, the European Union and other selected countries. Students will read different types of texts such as original research papers, reviews, policy briefs, reports or press releases. Students will be expected to consider their different structures and intentions.