Science of climate change
Summary
The course equips students with a comprehensive scientific understanding of climate change covering a wide range of topics from physical principles, historical climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, the IPCC assessment to future scenarios and climate action.
Content
The basics: physics and chemistry of the climate system, historical climate change, climate variability, sensitivity, feedbacks
Climate change assessment: IPCC review of present-day climate change, tipping elements, extremes, regional climate change
Scenarios and carbon budget: climate change scenarios, remaining carbon budget, climate metrics, carbon offsets, short-lived climate forcers/pollutants
Climate action: mitigation, adaptation and climate engineering
Keywords
Climate change, regional climate change, Earth system, IPCC, greenhouse gases, carbon budget, climate scenarios, greenhouse gas emissions
Learning Prerequisites
Required courses
none
please note that relevant basic material will be made available at the start of the semester for students to work through if they have not taken the recommended classes
Recommended courses
ENV-320 : Physics and chemistry of the atmosphere
ENV-409 : Air pollution
ENV-407: Atmospheric processes: from cloud to global scale
Please note that relevant basic material will be made available at the start of the semester for students to work through if they have not taken the recommended classes.
Important concepts to start the course
Basics of physics and chemistry
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Express the basic physics and chemistry of climate change
- Discuss the concepts of climate variability and climate sensitivity
- Reason why present day climate change is different from historical climate change
- Contrast climate change scenarios
- Apply simple climate metrics
- Interpret basic climate data and model output
- Critique mitigation, adaptation and climate engineering options
- Express the basic physics and chemistry of climate change
- Discuss the concepts of climate variability and climate sensitivity
- Reason why present day climate change is different from historical climate change
- Contrast climate change scenarios
- Apply simple climate metrics
- Interpret basic climate data and model output
- Critique mitigation, adaptation and climate engineering options
Transversal skills
- Assess one's own level of skill acquisition, and plan their on-going learning goals.
- Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
- Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
- Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
- Summarize an article or a technical report.
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
Teaching methods
In-depth teaching. Exercises with educational support. Project work in teams. Discussions.
Expected student activities
Lecture attendance, exercise assignments, project work, presentations
Assessment methods
50 % exercises, 50 % exam
Supervision
| Assistants | Yes |
| Forum | Yes |
Resources
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
No
Bibliography
Peixoto, José P., Physics of climate, New York : American Institute of Physics, 1992
Ressources en bibliothèque
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics / Seinfeld
- Atmospheric science, an introductory survey / Wallace
- Physics of climate / Peixoto
Notes/Handbook
lecture slides; recordings
Websites
- https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
- https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/
- https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/
- https://interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch/
- https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
- https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/
Moodle Link
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Written (winter session)
- Subject examined: Science of climate change
- Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional