Climate Change, Society and Sustainable Futures

Entry requirements

An upper second class degree in any degree, or equivalent international qualification.

A personal statement should describe your interest in Cities and Sustainable Futures and any relevant experience or study.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Anthropogenic climate change and associated global environmental challenges pose profound questions for the future of human and non-human life. What futures might climate change bring, as environmental crises intersect and overlap with other global challenges? Amid loss and damage, what futures might be desirable and possible? And how can we cultivate sustainable futures given global inequalities, vulnerabilities, and unequal capacities?

This programme responds to the profound challenge of developing ‘sustainable futures’ in the context of a changing climate. Your learning will focus on both a) understanding the relations between climate change and society, and b) exploring and evaluating alternatives and experiments across the globe that aim to create sustainable futures from within intersecting environmental crises.

You’ll learn about how climate change is profoundly affecting societies and is being responded to across the globe, in the wider context of efforts to generate sustainable futures (for example through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals). You will also develop a series of research skills and gain experience of working with partners, alongside the leadership and engagement and communication skills necessary to help you contribute to global efforts to enhance environmental sustainability.

The course is designed to equip students for a wide range of environmental sustainability related jobs across multiple sectors and in different national contexts. Students will exit the programme understanding the societal causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change at different scales, having developed expertise about a range of solutions and experiments, and equipped with the skills to research, evaluate, propose and lead solutions that foster environmental sustainability.

See more on our Geography Taught Masters course pages.

Teaching on this programme introduces students to fundamentals of climate change, social and political responses to climate change, its intersection with urbanisation and how these make sustainability challenging in a range of contexts. Through guided and independent work, students gain advanced training in research skills and techniques, learn skills of leadership, engagement and dissemination and design and execute an extended piece of student-led research on a problem or challenge at the intersection of climate change and society.

Year 1 modules

Sustainable Futures (30 credits)

The module introduces the causes of climate change and a range of other complex global crises, and explores emerging solutions around the promise of ‘sustainable futures’, building from the Sustainable Development Goals.

Climate Change and Society (15 credits)

The module will expand students’ comprehension of the diverse processes underpinning climate change and its impacts in particular places across the globe.

Research Methods for Global Challenges (15 credits)

The module will provide advanced training in the use of research skills and techniques, with the aim of developing a range of transferable skills relevant to researching sustainable futures amid global challenges.

Cities and Climate Change (15 credits)

The module explores how the very nature of urbanization is profoundly connected to the challenges of sustainability and responding to climate change.

Sustainable Transitions and Transformations (30 credits)

This module explores practical experiments that attempt to generate sustainable transitions and transformations at global, national and local scales, with a particular focus on climate change impacts. It involves visits to local sites and a fieldtrip to a UK city.

Knowledge for Action and Leadership (15 credits)

The module develops practical skills of leadership, engagement and dissemination relevant to creating sustainable futures.

Dissertation or Vocational Dissertation (60 credits)

The Dissertation allows students to design and execute an extended piece of research on a particular problem, challenge, or issue at the intersection of climate change and society. The Vocational Dissertation option is based on working with a non-academic partner.

Information for international students

International students who do not meet direct entry requirements for this degree might have the option to complete an International Foundation Year.

Fees and funding

More information is available here: Tuition fees - how much are they - Durham University