The course examines the significance of energy systems for the global environmental and climate challenges.

The course offers particular attention to countries with a relative large poor population and which confronts the challenge of how to reduce poverty and ensure their population access to reliable and affordable energy, without affecting the environment and the climate too much. The course also explores how countries in other parts of the world respond to the energy- and climate change. It gives attention to how global processes in the energy- and finance sectors affect choices that are made more locally. The course problematizes the role of the state and public administration, but attention is also given to actors in the market and in civil society. 

The student has advanced knowledge of

• How production and consumption of energy affect environment and climate.
• How countries in different parts of the world respond to the energy- and climate challenge
• The specific challenges poorer countries confront when responding to the energy- and climate crises
• How various actors in the state, the market and civil society respond to the energy- and climate challenge, and how they interact
• How global processes in the energy sector impact on the choices that are made more locally

The student can

• Discuss the role of the energy-system in relation to the environment- and climate challenge
• Discuss why existing energy systems often are difficult to change
• Discuss conditions that energy system might change to become more sustainable
• Discuss the particular challenges that poorer countries confront when responding to the energy- and climate challenge
• Discuss how global processes affect political processes and choices within the energy sector, in different parts of the world