CATHALAC together with the Ibero-American University Foundation (FUNIBER) has launched the very first Master’s degree in Climate Change! The Master’s degree in Climate Change is a program designed from the Latin American reality perspective in order to train professionals capable of developing solutions to reduce vulnerability, propose adaptation measures and mitigation strategies.

Introduction

The 1990s experienced a significant turning point in the way that both climate and climate public policy was viewed and addressed. The inception of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, initiated a process seeking to revert the phenomena that had already begun to adversely impact natural and human systems across the entire globe. This encouraged Latin American countries to develop National Communications as well as national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories.

Nevertheless, in order to comply with commitments under both the UNFCCC and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is essential to fully consider climate change and its associated impacts on policies, programs and projects, as well as potential impacts on private and public investment, and the everyday activities and perceptions of the general public.

This demands a more in-depth understanding of the contributing factors that influence the extreme conditions to which the world’s biological diversity, productive systems and societies are permanently exposed. To achieve these goals, professionals, researchers, project developers, and informed decision makers regarding climate change are necessary. Global climate change, therefore, represents an opportunity to change the way we understand the world, and to develop different strategies that consider environmental management a global public good.

The curriculum of the Master’s degree in climate change is, therefore designed to understand through rigorous scientific knowledge, the factors and sectors requiring intervention. At the same time the course  program encourages participants to search for innovative alternatives that will lead to the design and implementation of research and development projects; the application of alternative technologies in productive processes; the generation of new norms and regulations; education, awareness and citizens’ participation, as well as public and private investment in the overall field of adaptation or mitigation to climate change.