Master of Arts / Master of Science in Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability Studies

Description

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Summary of the Program

The M.A./M. Sc. in Environment, Climate, and Sustainable Studies (ECCSS) programme is a pioneering initiative of the School of Habitat Studies. Climate change and sustainability issues have become significantly more urgent in the current discourse on environment and climate change. Although our understanding and knowledge have improved over the years, gaps exist in the context of developing and low-income countries, including India, where the nature of problems and their solutions differ significantly from those of developed countries. One of the urgent concerns in the environment, climate change and sustainability domain is the need for more capacity among the graduating students, particularly in bringing interdisciplinarity to the subject. Most teaching-learning programs in India embody a disciplinary focus, whereas climate change and sustainability issues demand an interdisciplinary approach, a gap the current program attempts to bridge. The program's vision is to host world-class scholarships in environmental, climate change, and sustainability and develop the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies as the centre for excellence in the domain.

The programme intends to prepare students to understand and address the intertwined challenges of environmental protection, sustainability, and development confronting the world today, focusing on climate change and sustainability. It will allow students to theoretically and practically engage with these challenges while embedding the values of equity and social justice that recognize the imperative for development regarding material needs and other dimensions of human well-being. The programme would specifically involve teaching and inter-disciplinary dissertation work in areas including climate policy, energy and energy policy including, but not limited to the domains of renewables, water and water policy and governance, natural resource economics and economics of climate change, governance issues including natural resources and local and global environmental governance, sustainability issues in industry. Further, the programme aims to address some of the critical issues, such as energy transition, sustainability transition, sustainability finance and transition finance, climate change adaptation resilience, environmental conservation, loss and damage, and issues of forest and forest rights of people, through its research and advocacy and embed them in the teaching and learning activities.

Program Objectives

Provide multi-disciplinary perspectives on climate change, sustainability, and sustainable development based on a sound introduction to the study of development in general.

Engaging students to critically assess climate mitigation and adaptation principles and practices and sustainability principles and practices.

Imparting conceptual and practical tools to evaluate developments in critical sectors such as energy, industries, biodiversity, agriculture, forests and water based on their scientific, economic, and technological merits and their potential to contribute to broad societal goals such as development and poverty eradication, environmental protection, and enabling equity.

Training students to assess and map vulnerabilities concerning the environment and climate while also considering sustainability concerns and social vulnerabilities, including those due to caste, class and gender.

Orientation on emerging issues such as energy transition, sustainability transition, equity issue, and climate justice so that they can effectively contribute to regional and national policy frameworks.

Program Outcomes

The programme will focus on climate change, among the most urgent global environmental issues confronting today. The programme would build an in-depth understanding of the multi-dimensional and complex nature of climate change amongst the students through comprehensive engagement with the relevant scholarship and field studies and interaction with practitioners, grass-roots workers, and activists from communities and movements. It would entail looking into the reasons behind climate change, its impacts, the vulnerabilities of the future in the era of climate change, and the complex responses required for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This programme covers an intensive four-semester schedule that combines theoretical perspectives, practical classes, fieldwork, and internship. The graduates from this programme will have a wide range of capabilities that will enable them to work and intervene in several possible locations, including development organisations, government agencies, departments and projects, academia, and other civil society and community-based organisations. It will also provide the necessary background for students to work in the field of climate change and sustainability with industry, both in the public and private sectors. The extensive space devoted to their dissertation work will enable students to direct their learning towards working in any of the locations they choose in the future.

The programme outcome will involve:

• Developing analytical skills in climate and sustainability

• Exposure to advanced methods and modelling

• Learning synthesis of social and natural science to address contemporary issues in Environment, Climate and Sustainability

• Critical learning on climate and environmental policy framing

• Ability to develop independent research in the environment, energy and sustainability domain

• Understanding environmental ethics and social values through community engagements and field practice.

Semesterwise Courses:

Notes: 1. The total number of credits, list of CBCS/Swayam courses and semester-wise listing of courses is provisional and may undergo some changes.

2. Value-added courses (0 credit) will be compulsory at the end of Semesters I and III (30 hours each or 60 hours total).

3. Exit option is available at the end of Year I

Note:The curriculum structure is tentative and subject to change.

Fee Structure:

 *Institute reserves the rights to revise the Fees Structure of programme if necessary.

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